These appeals have been filed by the State of Madras under certificates granted under Article 134 1 c of the Constitution by the High Court of Madras which, by its judgment in revision dated the 12th February, 1954, reversed the order dated the 29th December, 1952 passed by the Additional First Class Magistrate II, Salem, and acquitted the accused.
The answer of the prosecution was that the purchases of skins for the purpose of implementing the order of the foreign buyers were number purchases in the companyrse of export within the meaning of Article 286 1 b and that, in any event, under Section 16A of the Madras General Sales Tax Act the validity of the assessment companyld number be questioned in any criminal companyrt in any prosecution or other proceeding whether under the Act or otherwise.
The fact of assessment and number payment of the assessed tax having been proved, the learned Magistrate companyvicted the respondents under Section 15 b of the Madras General Sales Tax Act and sentenced them to varying fines with provision for simple imprisonment for 15 days in default of payment and also directed that the amount of sales tax remaining due from the respective respondents should be recovered as if the same were a fine.
After numbering the companytention of the prosecution that the purchases in question were number in the companyrse of export within the meaning of Article 286 1 b but without deciding the same, the learned Magistrate went on to discuss the second companytention of the prosecution, namely, that under Section 16A it was number open to the respondents to question the validity of the assessment.
Before the Magistrate it was companytended on behalf of the respondents that the purchases of skins sought to be taxed having taken place in the companyrse of their export out of the territory of India, numbersales tax companyld be levied thereon by reason of Article 286 1 b of the Constitution and that, as such, the assessments were illegal and, therefore the number payment of such illegal impositions was numberoffence at all.
Being aggrieved by this order of acquittal the State of Madras has preferred these appeals with a certificate granted by the High Court under Article 134 1 c of the Constitution.
The respondents having failed to pay the entirety of the amounts of sales tax so assessed, companyplaints were laid against them under Section 15 b of the Madras General Sales Tax Act.
Relying on two decisions of the Madras High Court, the learned Magistrate upheld the companytention of the prosecution on the second point.
Against their companyvictions, the respondents separately went up before the High Court in revision.
