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TMI Blog1959 (11) TMI 47X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... te of Andhra Pradesh. For the assessment year 1956-57, the assessing authority under the Hyderabad General Sales Tax Act determined the petitioners' total net turnover at Rs. 10,95,439-14-9. Out of the aggregate turnover a sum of Rs. 46,739-2-0 represents the sales effected by the petitioners to dealers in the Andhra area from 1st November, 1956, to 31st March, 1957. It was contended by the petitioners that under section 119 of the States Re-organisation Act, 1956, there were during the relevant period two separate Acts in force, namely, the Hyderabad Sales Tax Act in the area popularly known as Telangana which previously formed part of the erstwhile State of Hyderabad, and the Madras General Sales Tax Act in the rest of the State of Andh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the State of Andhra shall comprise of the territories specified in sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Andhra State Act," and the First Schedule to the Constitution was amended by the inclusion of the new State. The State of Andhra was inaugurated on the 1st of October, 1953. Under section 53 of the Andhra State Act, it was provided that the laws in force in the territories in the Andhra State prior to its constitution were to continue to be in force even thereafter; and one of those laws is the Madras General Sales Tax Act (Madras Act IX of 1939). Section 54 of the Andhra State Act conferred on the Government a power to adapt laws for the purpose of facilitating the application of any law previously made, and in exercise of the powers so ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t II shall not be deemed to have effected any change in the territories to which any law in force immediately before the appointed day extends or applies, and territorial references in any such law to any existing State shall, until otherwise provided by a competent legislature or other competent authority, be construed as meaning the territories within that State immediately before the appointed day. "120. Power to adapt laws.-For the purpose of facilitating the application of any law in relation to any of the States formed or territorially altered by the provisions of Part II, the appropriate Government may, before the expiration of one year from the appointed day by order make such adaptations and modifications of the law, whether by w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... amended the law. If the appropriate Government exercised its powers and made suitable orders under section 120, the Courts were empowered under section 121, to construe the law in such manner as was necessary to facilitate the application of the laws in relation to the territory added by the Act. Pursuant to the power confided by section 120, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh promulgated the Andhra Pradesh Adaptation of Laws Order, 1957. Sub-clause (2) of clause 1 of the Order gave it retrospective operation as from the 1st day of November, 1956. Clause 3(1) of the Order provided as follows: "As from the appointed day, the Andhra laws mentioned in the First Schedule to this Order and the Hyderabad laws mentioned in the Second Schedule to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s from the Telangana area to the Andhra area must be deemed to be inter-State sales. As from the 1st of November, 1956, both the Telangana and Andhra areas are comprised in one single State. As pointed out by the Supreme Court in Shiv Bahadur Singh v. State of Vindhya Pradesh[1953] S.C.R. 1188 at p. 1206., in the normal course and in the absence of any attempt to introduce uniform legislation throughout the State, the pre-existing laws of the various component parts would continue to be in force on the wellaccepted principle laid down by the Privy Council in Mayor of Lyons v. East India Co.1 M.I.A. 175 at pp. 270, 271. Section 119 of the States Re-organisation Act makes a suitable provision for avoiding any hiatus. The effect of that sect ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in force in those territories shall continue to be operative in spite of the re-organisation of States. The question then is as to what would constitute inter-State trade and commerce. In Bengal Immunity Co. Ltd. v. State of Bihar(1), Venkatarama Ayyar, J., observed: "A sale could be said to be in the course of inter-State trade only if two conditions concur: (1) a sale of goods, and (2) a transport of those goods from one State to another under the contract of sale. Unless both these conditions are satisfied there can be no sale in the course of interState trade." Movement of goods across a State border is the very essence of inter-State trade and commerce. The Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, included the territories s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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