Judgment

JASWANT SINGH, J - This batch of appeals by special leave which are directed against three separate judgments of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad dismissing three sets of writ petitions Nos. 1195 to 1198 of 1975, 3931, 3944 and 4929 of 1975 and 6790 of 1974 filed by the appellants to challenge certain orders of the sales tax authorities made in respect of re-determination of their turnover for certain years under the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) shall be disposed of by this judgment, as they raise a common question as to whether the excise duty deposited directly in a State treasury or a sub-treasury by the purchasers of the Indian made foreign liquor called Indian liquors before removing the said liquor from a distillery and the countervailing duty remitted directly to a State Treasury or a sub-treasury by the purchasers of the aforesaid specie of liquor before removing it from a bonded warehouse can properly be said to form part of the turnover of the manufacturer and of the owner of the bonded warehouse respectively and as such liable to sales tax under the Act.

2. The circumstances which have given rise to t