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TMI Blog1962 (4) TMI 77X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r disclosed the transactions in relation to the two statues but averred before the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer that he was neither a dealer nor the transactions were sales for the purpose of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939. The petitioner also stated that if at all, the transactions amounted to works contract not involving any element of taxable sale. The Deputy Commercial Tax Officer by his notice dated 28th April, 1960, intimated the petitioner that the work he had undertaken was not works contract but the transactions attracted liability to sales tax. The officer also gave his view that the two bronze casts sold by the petitioner had market value, apparently meaning they were just like other marketable goods. He proposed to asse ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... h of Labour" is a piece of art, and is such that its value is entirely based on its art, and not on the comparatively infinitesimal value of the material including the metal that went into the work. It is not also the case of the respondent that the "Triumph of Labour", made for it by the petitioner, is, in the nature of an ordinary article displayed or generally available for sale in a market. In fact, the "Triumph of Labour", it is common ground has not and can have no general market for it. It is a thing of art, special taste and out of the ordinary. So too, is the statue of Mahatma Gandhi made and supplied by the petitioner to the West Bengal Government. The statue is valuable for the art rather than for the material used for the cast a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n the sales or purchases are effected by one in the course of a trade or business that they become sales chargeable to sales tax. Sales which do not answer that description will not be sales for purposes of the Act. Can it be said, in this case, that the petitioner in supplying the two pieces of sculpture effected sales of them. in the course of trade or business in such casts? In my opinion, the answer must clearly be in the negative, The petitioner is a sculptor of repute and according to him, in his affidavit, he does not even pursue the profession as such of a sculptor. After his retirement, in order to satisfy his admirers, he utilises his skill as a sculptor and produces objects of special art, for supply to those who have a taste a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oner, I hold that the petitioner, in respect of these transactions, was not a dealer and that the two transactions were not sales within their relative definitions in the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939. The learned Additional Government Pleader contends that no prohibition should issue from this Court, at this stage. He says that it is too early for this Court to interfere because the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer concerned must be left to decide, in the first instance, whether the transactions were taxable and the petitioner was a dealer in respect of them. I would have been disposed normally to have accepted this contention but for the fact that in his notice proposing to assess, which I have already referred to, the Deputy Commerci ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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