Summarize the following court judgment. Civil Appeal Nos. 1768 1769/ 72. Appeals by Special Leave from the Judgment and order dated 15 7 1971 of the Delhi High Court in Sales Tax Reference No. 8 of 1969. F. section Nariman	 (In CA 1768/72)	 V. section Desai (in C.A. 1769). M. C. Bhandare (C.A. 1768/72) and Mrs. section Bhandare and Miss M. Poduval for the Appellants. P. A. Francis	 R. N. Sachthey and Miss A. Subhashini for the Respondent. Y. section Chitale	 Vinay. Bhasin	 A. K. Srivastava and Vineet Kumar for the Interveners. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by PATHAK	 J. This and the connected appeal are directed against the judgment of the High Court of Delhi disposing of a reference made to it under section 21(3) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act	 1941 as extended to the Union Territory of Delhi on the following question: "Whether the service of meals to casual visitors in the Restaurant is taxable as a sale: (i) when charges are lumpsum per meal or (ii) when they are calculated per dish ?" The High Court has answered the question in the affirmative. The appellant runs a hotel in which lodging and meals are provided on "inclusive terms" to residents. Meals are served to non residents also in the restaurant located in the hotel. In the assessment proceedings for the assessment years 1957 58 and 1958 59 under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act	 1941	 the appellant contended that the service of meals to residents and non residents could not be regarded as a sale and therefore sales tax could not be levied in respect thereof. The contention was rejected by the Sales Tax authorities	 who treated a portion of the receipts from the residents and nonresidents as representing the price of the foodstuffs served. At the instance of the appellant	 the High Court called for a statement of the case on two questions. One was whether the supply of meals to residents	 who paid a single all inclusive charge for all services in the 559 hotel	 including board	 was exigible to sales tax. The second was the A question set forth above. The High Court answered the first question in favour of the appellant and the second against it. And now these appeals by special leave. Tax is payable by a dealer under section 4 of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act	 1941 on sales effected by him	 and the expression "sale ' has been defined by section 2 (g) of the Act to mean "any transfer of property in goods for cash or deferred payment or other valuable consideration including a transfer of property in goods involved in the execution of a contract. ". The question is whether in the case of non residents the service of meals by the appellant in the restaurant constitutes a sale of foodstuffs. It appears to us that after the view taken by this Court in State of Punjab vs M/s Associated Hotels of India Ltd.	(1) the approach to the question before us is clearly indicated. This is a case where the origin and historical development of an institution as profoundly influenced the nature and incidents it possesses in law. In the case of an hotelier this Court proceeded on the footing that his position in law was assimilable to that of an inn keeper. At common law an innkeeper was a person who received travellers and provided lodging and necessaries for them and their attendants and employed servants for this purpose and for the protection of travellers lodging in his inn and of their goods(2). It was hospitality that he offered	 and the many facilities that constituted the components of that hospitality determined the legal character of the transactions flowing from them. Long ago	 in Crisp vs Pratt(3) it was pointed out that innkeepers do not get their living by buying and selling and that although they buy provisions to be spent in their house	 they do not sell them but what they do is to "utter" them. "Their gain"	 it was added	 "is not only by uttering of their commodities	 but for the attendance of their servants	 and for the furniture of their house	 rooms	 lodgings	 for their guests. '`. This test went to the root and we find it repeated in Parker vs Flint.(4) In Newton vs Trigg(5) Holt	 C.J.	 defined the true status of an inn keeper by reference to the services afforded by him? that he was an "hospitator"	 and was "not paid upon the account of the intrinsic value of his provisions	 but for other reasons: the recompence he receives	 is for care and pains and for protection and security. . but the end of an inn keeper in (1) ; (2) Halsbury 's Laws of England	 3rd Edn. 21 p. 442 paras 932. (3) [1639] Cro. Car. 549. (4) [1699] 12 Mod 254. (5) 3 Mod . 2 549SCI/78 560 his buying	 is not to sell	 but only a part of the accommodation he is bound to prepare for his guests. " And for the purpose of the question before us is would be relevant to quote Professor Beale(1): As an inn keeper does not lease his rooms	 so he does not sell the food he supplies to the guest. It is his duty to supply such food as the guest needs	 and the corresponding right of the guest is to consume the food he needs	 and to take no more. Having finished his meal	 he has no right to take food from the table	 even the uneaten portion of food supplied to him	 nor can he claim a certain portion of good as his own to be handed over to another in case he chooses not to consume it himself. The title to food never passes as a result of an ordinary transaction of supplying food to a guest." Having proper regard to those particular considerations	 it is not surprising that the principle was extended in England to the service OF food at eating places or restaurants. The keeper of an eating house	 or victualler	 was regarded fundamentally as providing sustenance to those who ordered food to eat in the premises. That eminent and learned Judge	 Lord Mansfield	 saw no distinction	 in Saunderson vs Rowles(2)	 between an innkeeper and a victualler. He observed: '. The analogy between the two cases of an inn keeper and a victualler is so strong that it cannot be got over. And we are all clear that this man (victualler) is not within these laws; upon the authority of a determined case of an inn keeper	 and also upon the reason of the thing. He buys only to spend in his house	 and when he utters it again it is attended with many circumstances additional to the mere selling price. " Like the hotelier	 a restaurateur provides many services in addition to the supply of food. He provides furniture and furnishings	 linen	 crockery and cutlery	 and in the eating places of today he may add music and a specially provided area for floor dancing and in some cases a floor show. The view taken by the English law found acceptance on American soil	 and after some desultory dissent initially in certain states it very soon became firmly established as the general view of the law. The first edition of American Jurisprudence sets(3) forth the statement of the law in that regard	 but we may go to the case itself	 Electa B. Merrill vs James W. Hodson(4)	 from which the (1) Innkeepers & Hotels	 para 169. (2) (3) Vol. 46 p. 207 para 13. (4) 561 statement has been derived. Holding that the supply of food or drink A to customers did not partake of the character of a sale of goods	 the Court commented: "The essence of it is not an agreement for the transfer of the general property of the food or drink placed at the com command of the customer for the satisfaction of his desires	 or actually appropriated by him in the process of appeasing his appetite or thirst. The customer does not become the owner of the food set before him	 or of that portion which is carved for his use	 or of that which finds a place upon his plate	 or in side dishes set about it. No designated portion becomes his. He is privileged to eat	 and that is all. The uneaten food is not his. He cannot do what he pleases with it. That which is set before him or placed at his command is provided tc enable him to satisfy his immediate wants	 and for no other purpose. He may satisfy those wants; but there he must stop. He may not turn over unconsumed portions to others at his pleasure	 or carry away such portions. The true essence of the transaction is service in the satisfaction of a human need or desire	 ministry to a bodily want. A necessary incident of this service or ministry is the consumption of the food required. This consumption involves destruction	 and nothing remains of what is consumed to which the right of property can be said to attach. Before consumption title does not pass; after consumption there remains nothing to become the subject of title. What the customer pays for is a right to satisfy his appetite by the process of destruction. What he thus pays for includes more than the price of the food as such. It includes all that enters into the conception of service	 and with it no small factor of direct personal service. It does not contemplate the transfer of the general property in the food supplied as a factor in the service rendered. " Subsequent cases drew on these observations	 notably Mary Nisky vs Childs Company. (1) The position was radically altered in the United States by the enactment of the Uniform Commercial Code	 which provides in effect that the serving for value of food or drink to be consumed either on the premises or elsewhere constitutes a sale. Nonetheless it is affirmed in the second edition of American Jurisprudence(2) that where the Code does not operate	 "in general the pre Code distinction between a contract for sale and one for the giving of services should continue. " (l) (2) Vol. 67 p. 142 para 33. 562 It has already been noticed that in regard to hotels this Court has in M/s. Associated Hotels of India Limited (supra) adopted the concept of the English law that there is no sale when food and drink are supplied to guests residing in the hotel. The Court pointed out that the supply of meals was essentially in the nature of a service provided to them and could not be identified as a transaction of sale. The Court declined to accept the proposition that the Revenue was entitled to split up the transaction into two parts	 one of service and the other of sale of foodstuffs. If that be true in respect of hotels	 a similar approach seems to be called for on principle in the case of restaurants. No reason has been shown to us for preferring any other. The classical legal view being that a number of services are concomitantly provided by way of hospitality	 the supply of meals must be regarded as ministering to a bodily want or to the satisfaction of a human need. What has been said in Electa B. Merrill (supra) appears to be as much applicable to restaurants in India as it does elsewhere. It has not been proved that any different view should be taken	 either at common law	 in usage or under statute. It was urged for the respondent that in Associated Hotels of India Ltd. (supra) this Court drew a distinction between the case of meals supplied to a resident in a hotel and those served to a customer in a restaurant. We are unable to find any proposition of law laid down by the court there which could lead to that inference. We may point 13 out that in the view which appeals to us we find ourselves unable to agree with the observations to the contrary made by the Punjab High Court in M/s. Associated Hotels of India Ltd.	 Simla vs Excise and Taxation officer	 Simla(1) and by the Delhi High Court in Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs Laxmi Narain Tandon and another. (2)	 In the result	 we hold that the service of meals to visitors in the restaurant of the appellant is not taxable under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act	 1941	 as extended to the Union Territory of Delhi	 and this is so whether a charge is imposed for the meal as a whole or according to the dishes separately ordered. In the circumstances of the case	 we make no order as to costs. N.V.K. Appeals allowed (1) A. I. R. 1966 Punjab 449. (2) A	 I. R. 1970 Delhi 244.

The appellant runs a hotel in which meals are served to non residents also in the restaurant located in the hotel. The sales tax authorities treated a portion of the receipts as representing the price of foodstuffs served and levied tax. The High Court affirmed the view of the sales tax authorities. On the question whether the transaction constituted sale of foodstuffs. Allowing the appeals ^ HELD. 1. Service of meals to non residents in the restaurant of 'the appellant is not taxable under the Bengal Finance (Sales Ta%) Act 1941	 as extended to the Union Territory of Delhi. This is so whether a charge is imposed for the meal as a whole or according to the dishes separately ordered. [562 F; 2. In State of Punjab vs M/s. Associated Hotels of India ; this Court held that there was no sale when food and drink were supplied to guests residing in the hotel. The Court pointed out that the supply of meals was essentially in the nature of a service provided to the guests and could not be identified as a transaction of sale. This Court declined to accept the position that the Revenue was entitled to split up the transaction into two parts	 one of service and the other of sale of foodstuffs. If that be true in respect of hotels	 a	 similar approach seems to be called for on principle in the case of restaurants. Like the hotelier	 a restaurateur provides many services in addition to the supply of food. He provides furniture and furnishings	 linen	 crockery and cutlery	 and he may add music	 an area for floor dancing and in some cases a floor show. The classical legal view being that a number of services are concomitantly provided by way of hospitality	 the supply of meals must be regarded as ministering to a bodily want or to the satisfaction of a human need. No reason has been shown for preferring any other view. [562 B	 560 F G	 562 C] State of Punjab vs M/s. Associated Hotels of India Ltd. ; applied. M/s. Associated Hotels of India Ltd.	 Simla vs Excise and Taxation Officer Simla not approved. Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs Laxmi Narain Tandon and Another not approved. Crisp vs Pratt [1639] Cro. Car 549	 Parker vs Flint [1699] 12 Mod. 254 Newton v . Trigg 3 Mod. 327	 Saunderson vs Rowles Electa B. 558 Merrill vs James W. Hodson 	 and Mary Nisky vs Child Company SO A.L.R. 227 referred.