Judgment

GUPTA, J.:- These twelve appeals arise out of a common Judgment of the Madras High Court disposing of the writ petitions filed by the respondents in which they challenged certain orders of the assessing authority under the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959 proposing to redetermine the taxable turnover of the respondents by including the sale price of foreign liquor which, it was alleged, had escaped assessment. The High Court directed the sales tax authorities not to include in the assessable turnover the tax paid by the respondents under Settion 21-A of the Madras Prohibition Act, 1937. In these appeals, brought on certificate of fitness, the correctness of the High Court s decision is questioned by the sales tax authorities. The appeals have three different assessees as respondents and relate to different assessment years concerning each assessee, ranging from 1959-60 to 196465.

2. The assessees are dealers in foreign liquor, among other goods. They have been assessed to sales tax as dealers on sales or purchases of other goods under Section 3 (1) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959. Sec. 3 (1) is the charging section providing generally that a dealer whose total t