Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J. (on behalf of himself and M. H. Beg C. J., Chandrachud, Bhagwati, Untwalia and Fazal Ali, JJ.):- This bunch of appeals brought by the State of Gujarat certificate has a pan-Indian impact, as the sales-tax project which has been struck down by the High Court may adversely affected cousin provisions in like statutes in the rest of the country. Contradictory verdicts on the constitutionality of a certain pattern of sales-tax legislation, calculated to counter consumer victimisation by dealers, have been rendered by different High Courts and what complicates the issue is that reasonings in the prior rulings of this Court on the topic have been pressed into service by both sides. This slippery legal situation makes it necessitous for the Constitution Bench of this Court (numerically expanded, almost to breaking point, by the recent 42nd Constitution Amendment) to declare the law with relative certitude, reviewing, in the process, its previous pronouncements and overruling, if required, the view of one High Court or the other so that the correct position may finally be restated. The certainty of the law is the safety of the citizen and, having regard to the histo