Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
A.N. Ray, C.J., M. Hameedullah Beg, P.N. Shinghal and R.S. Sarkaria

JUDGMENT

M. Hameedullah Beg, J.

1. The two Civil Appeals Nos. 58-59 of 1971 arise out of a judgment of a Division Bench of the Madras High Court dismissing two writ petitions filed against notices issued by a Commercial Tax Officer showing institution of sales tax assessment proceedings in respect of certain iron and steel goods for the assessment year 1965-66 in Writ Petition No. 437 of 1967 and for the assessment year 1966-67 in Writ Petition No. 520 of 1968. The High Court of Madras had certified the cases as fit for appeal to this Court under Articles 132 and 133(1)(a) and (c) of the Constitution. Although, the writ petitions had been dismissed on the ground that they involve an investigation into the question of fact whether the iron and steel scrap, out of which the manufactured goods sought to be subjected to sales tax, had been made, were already taxed or not, yet, the State of Tamil Nadu was aggrieved by the decision of the Madras High Court, holding that the manufactured goods, said to consist of "steel rounds, flats, angles, plates, bars" or similar goods in other forms and shapes, could not be taxed again if the material out of which they were made had already been subjected to sales tax once as iron and steel scrap as both were "iron and steel". It was possible to leave the assessing authorities free to decide all the questions which they had jurisdiction to consider. But, it appears that the Madras High Court thought it proper to decide the question as the sales tax authorities had already adopted the view, in other cases, that such goods, though covered by the broad genus "iron and steel", were separately taxable commodities because each kind of "iron and steel" goods was a commercially different and separately taxable species or category. Moreover, this very question was also before the High Court in regular revision petitions under the Tamil Nadu Sales Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as "the Tamil Nadu Act").

2. Civil Appeals Nos. 880-883 of 1971 arise out of four petitions for revision under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Act for the years 1964-65 and 1965-66, which were allowed by the Madras High Court setting aside assessment orders by following its judgment and decision mentioned above given on June 24, 1970, on Writ Petitions Nos. 437 of 1967 and 520 of 1968. The Madras High Court had also granted certificates of fitness for appeal to this Court under Article 132 read with Article 133(1)(a) and (c) in the four cases before it on revision petitions. Hence, six cases were connected and heard together by us. The same question of law decided by the Madras High Court on grounds contained in one judgment under appeal in Civil Appeals Nos. 58-59 of 1971 before this Court arise in all of them.

3. All the six cases before us relate to what are known as "declared goods" under Section 14 ........