JUDGMENT

Rajendra Babu, J.-In these matters the Andhra Pradesh High Court concluded that software is of two categories -(i) software which is specialised and exclusively custom-made to cater to the needs of individual clients, and (ii) software which is standardised and marketed for the use of certain classes of clients, like the Oracle, Lotus, Master Key, N-Export, Ex. Unigraphics, etc. and held that for the purpose of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act ) it is not necessary to consider whether the definition of goods in Section 2(h) of the Act has to be read down so as to exclude software from it. The High Court took the view that the first category may not constitute goods for the purpose of the Act, while the second category are goods and held that they are leviable to tax.

2. The case advanced on behalf of the appellants is that the branded software which is an intellectual property being product of thought, creativity and intellectual efforts cannot be goods for the purpose of the Act; that it is an intangible intellectual property and, therefore, cannot be goods; that software is an essentially classic form of intellectual pro