Judgment

S. K. DAS, J. : These three appeals with special leave granted under Art. 136 of the Constitution have been heard together and this judgment will govern them all. They raise a common question as to the practice of this Court, which we shall presently state. But before we do so, we must first set out the facts in so far as it is necessary to state them in order to appreciate the precise nature of the question that has arisen for consideration in these appeals.

2. The relevant facts are these. The firm of Messrs. Durga Dutt Chandi Prasad, appellant in these appeals, carried on a business of dealing in several kinds of goods but mostly in raw jute at Sahebganj in Bihar. It was registered as a dealer under S. 4 of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1944, with effect from July, 1, 1946, For three periods, commencing from October 1, 1947 and ending on March 31, 1950 it was assessed to sales tax on its turnover of the relevant periods, which consisted inter alia of purchases alleged to have been made on behalf of two other jute mills outside Bihar, namely, the Raigarh Jute Mills and the Ben?al Jute Mills, and also of despatches of jute said to have been made to the dealer s own firm in Calcu