R.S. Bachawat JUDGMENT
M. Hidayatullah, C.J.
1. These are four appeals by certificate against the common judgment of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh (Indore Bench), 16 December, 1964/5 January, 1965 dismissing four suits filed by the appellants to recover sales-tax alleged to be realized illegally from them by the State of Madhya Pradesh, the respondent in these appeals. The suits were earlier decreed by the District Judge, Ujjain. The facts in the suits are common and were as follows :
2. The appellants are dealers in tobacco and have their places of business at Ujjain. They purchase and sell tobacco used for eating, smoking and for preparing bidis. They get their tobacco locally or import it from extra-state places. The former Madhya Bharat State enacted in 1950 the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act (Act 30 of 1950) which came into force on May 1, 1950. Under s. 3 of the Act every dealer whose business in the previous year in respect of sales or supplies of goods exceeded in the case of an importer and manufacturer Rs. 5,000 and in other cases Rs. 12,000 had to pay tax in respect of sales or supplies of goods effected in Madhya Bharat from 1st May 1950. Under s. 5, the tax was a single point tax and it was provided that the Government might by a notification specify the point of the sales at which the tax was payable. The section also fixed the minimum and maximum rates of tax leaving it to Government to notify the actual rate.
3. Government, in pursuance of this power, issued a number of notifications on April 30, 1950, May 22, 1950, October 24, 1953 and January 21, 1954. All these notifications imposed tax at different rates on tobacco above described on the importer, that is to say at the point of import. The tax was not levied on sale or purchase of tobacco of similar kind in Madhya Bharat. The tax was collected by the authorities in varying amounts from the appellants for different quarters. We are not concerned with the amounts. The appellants served notices under s. 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure and filed the present suits for refund of the tax on the ground that it was illegally collected from them being against the constitutional prohibition in Art. 301 and not saved under Art. 304(a) of the Constitution.
4. The State of Madhya Pradesh was formed on November 1, 1955. In Bhailal v. M.P. MANU/MP/0157/1959 : 1960 M.P.L.J. 601 the High Court of Madhya Pradesh declared the notifications to be offensive to Art. 301 of the Constitution on the ground that it was illegal to levy a tax on the importer when a equal tax was not levied on similar goods produced in the State. The decision was later confirmed on this point in State of M. P. v. Bhailal Bhai MANU/SC/0029/1964 : [1964]6SCR261 . The appellants did........