9911796707
TMI Blog1967 (4) TMI 187X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... yaraghavalu Chetty doing the business of selling in public auction unredeemed articles pledged with pawnbrokers. The respondent claimed that the articles which were unredeemed pledges with pawnbrokers were sold by him during the year of assessment only as an auctioneer but not as a dealer within the scope of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959, and that therefore the sales should be exempt from assessment at his hands. The authorities of the Commercial Tax Department including the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, held that the respondent functioned in such sales as a dealer with possession of the goods, and confirmed his assessment to sales tax on such sales. He appealed to the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal. Before the Tribunal the res ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... respondent was not a dealer with dominion over the possession of the sold goods who transferred the property in such goods to the highest bidder, and that therefore the respondent could not be assessed to sales tax on such sales. The Tribunal allowed the appeal of the assessee and set aside the assessment. The department has filed this revision case against the order. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner (department) referred us to the rules framed by the State Government under the Madras Pawnbrokers Act, 1943, and in particular rule 15 which outlines the procedure in auction of pledges. Rule 15 is as follows: "15. Procedure in auction of pledges.-The following procedure shall be observed with reference to the sale by public auc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... make it necessary for the pawnbroker to part with possession of the goods in favour of the auctioneer. With a little reflection, one also realises that a careful pawnbroker would like to keep the goods in his own custody until they are sold, and would not like to hand over possession to the auctioneer without any security for their safe custody. The provisions in the Pawnbrokers Act and, in particular, the obligation that auction sales of unredeemed goods shall be effected according to certain prescribed rules through approved auctioneers are intended to safeguard the pledgers of goods from the effect of nominal or bogus sales of their goods by pawnbrokers in the event of non-redemption, which will otherwise have the effect of preventing p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... an auctioneer. The "auctioneer" is however included therein only as an instance of other types of dealers who are also referred to in the definition. But the main part of the definition at the beginning of section 2(g) refers to a person who carries on the business of buying, selling, supplying or distributing goods. Before these requirements can apply to a dealer, for the purpose of levy of sales tax the transaction must amount to a sale as defined in section 2(n) of the Act. That definition makes it necessary that there should be a transfer of property in the goods by one person to another in the course of business for cash or deferred payment or other valuable consideration. In the present case, there is a clear finding that the auction ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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