1988 (2) TMI 435

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..... posite bills including charges for lodging and boarding were issued to the guests. 3.. The case of the petitioners in short is that they did not sell or serve food, eatables and beverages to outsiders and those who do not stay in the hotels. Food, eatables and beverages were also not sold separately and permitted to be taken out of the hotels in packets and parcels. Even if the guests stay in the hotels but do not take food, there is no reduction of the lodging and boarding charges. In these circumstances, the dominant object of the petitioners being service and not sale, in accordance with the decisions reported in [1972] 29 STC 474 (SC) (State of Himachal Pradesh v. Associated Hotels of India Ltd.), [1978] 42 STC 386 (SC) [Northern Indi .....

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..... of food and drinks meant for human consumption were made exigible for sales tax, they were competent to levy sales tax and additional sales tax even for the assessment years 1982-83 and 1983-84. 6.. Mr. Arijit Pasayat, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, placed reliance on the decisions of Associated Hotels of India Limited [1972] 29 STC 474 (SC), Northern India Caterers [1980] 45 STC 212 (SC) and Hotel Dwaraka [1985] 58 STC 241 (AP) and urged that the 46th Amendment of the Constitution of India gave legislative competence to the States to amend the definition of "sale" in the State Sales Tax Acts, but by itself, it did not make amendment to the State laws. Therefore, the State Governments became competent to levy sales tax on .....

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..... ens to be the dominant object in a hotel, then the transaction would be exigible to sales tax. In a recent decision of our own Bench in O.J.C. Nos. 1631 and 1632 of 1980, Piplani Sweets v. Sales Tax Officer [1988] 70 STC 153 (disposed of on 3rd February, 1988), it was held that where the dominant object was service and not sale, sales tax could not be assessed on the composite turnover, but where the dominant object is sale of food, eatables, beverages and drinks even to customers in packets and parcels, then sales tax is exigible. In all these cases in hand, the Sales Tax Officers were obsessed with the definition of "sale" in the 46th Amendment of the Constitution of India with regard to tax on the sale or purchase of goods which included .....

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