Judgment

VENKATARAMA AIYAR, J. : The petitioners are dealers carrying on business in the City of Madras in the sale and purchase of yarn, and they have filed the present applications under Art. 32 of the Constitution for the issue of a writ of prohibition or other appropriate writ restraining the State of Andhra from taking proceedings for imposing tax on certain sales effected by them in favour of merchants who are residing or carrying on business in what is now the State of Andhra Pradesh, on the ground, inter alia, that the said sales were made in the course of inter - State trade, and that no tax could be levied on them by reason of the prohibition contained in Art. 286 (2) of the Constitution.

2. The course of dealings between the parties resulting in the above sales has been set out in para 5 in Petition No. 220 of 1955. It is therein stated that the dealers in Andhra would place orders for the purchase of yarn with the petitioners in Madras, that the contracts would be concluded at Madras, that the goods would be delivered ex-godown at Madras and would thereafter be despatched to the purchasers either by lorries or by rail as might be directed by them, that when the goods were