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TMI Blog1995 (1) TMI 379X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng on the business of manufacturing and sale of cloth and is a registered dealer under the provisions of the M.P. General Sales Tax Act. The mill is paying sales tax as also the entry tax on the excisable transactions. Under section 46 of the Factories Act, the mill is under obligation to provide and maintain canteen for the use of workers employed by it. The activity is, therefore, incidental and integral one. The mill entrusted this work to the petitioner under a valid contract who performed this activity, fixed under the statute, as representative and agent of the mill (annexures P/1 and P/2). The petitioner, possessed no independent right to employ workers to run this canteen. The mill exercised the entire control over the management an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rieved, preferred an appeal before the appellate authority i.e., the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax (annexures P/11, P/9 and P/10). The appellate authority however, sustained the order of Additional Sales Tax Officer. Aggrieved, the petitioner preferred second appeals before the Board of Revenue. The Board of Revenue dismissed the appeals by a common order dated April 30, 1985 (annexure P/14). The petitioner is aggrieved by the orders passed by the assessing authority, revisional authority and the appellate authority and thus, seeks quashment of the orders marked as annexures P/3, P/7, P/5, P/8, P/11 and P/14. 3.. The respondents have filed the return in opposition. 4.. I have heard both sides. 5.. The short question that arises for ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... modity for money and of service is act of serving. Normally, food is served, not sold, more so when it is the case of hotel, restaurant or canteen. Respondents sedulously assessed the petitioner on the linchpin of sale and serenely avoided to treat the activity as one of service. 11.. Judicial review exists to examine the validity of orders. Lord Denning put it elegantly in Breen v. Amalgamated Engineering Union [1971] 1 All ER 148 and Supreme Court stated in Khudiram s case [1975] 2 SCR 832; AIR 1975 SC 550 that in a Government of laws there is nothing like unfettered discretion immune from judicial reviewability . Fairness, founded on reason, is the essence of the guarantee epitomised in article 14. 12.. In Council of Civil Service ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hich may appear to be bit-tortourous and may induce the individual, falling in the net, to turn tax-avoiders, if not tax-evaders. Individual should not be allowed to escape the rigour of law in case of proved escapement in assessment. This is why taxation law meaningfully provides the power to reopen and reassess. But such exercise cannot be seen to degenerate as energumen. The limit of law, noticeable as Lakshaman Rekha , lapidates the overstepping and declares the course for recourse. All occasions demand duties to preserve truth. Poet James Russel Lowell very appropriately observed: New occasions teach new duties Time makes ancient good uncouth They must upward still and onward Who would keep abreast of truth. So charged w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... een was permitted to be run by an individual on contract from the mill. As observed, this contention is intensively inert, insipid and inutile. 16.. In [1988] 68 STC 378 (MP); (1987) 20 VKN 351 (Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Hukumchand Mills Ltd.) it is held that: The aforesaid provisions contained in section 46 read with the rules referred to above, leave no room for doubt that the dominant object of running the canteen is rendering service as a welfare measure under the Factories Act and the Rules. Consequently, the substance of the transaction in canteen sales, evidenced by its dominant object, is not sale of food, but rendering of services as a welfare activity as enjoined by the Factory Act and the State Rules. 17.. On facts as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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