Judgment

SABYASACHI MUKHARJI, J. :-

W.P. Nos. 5117/81, 3656-84/82, 5241-5260/83 and 7340/81 :

These four batches of Writ Petitions challenge the imposition of sales tax on bread, rusk and bun under the A. P. Sales Tax Act, 1957 as illegal. The main and the first contention was that the bread and biscuits belong to one homogeneous class but these have been differently treated for taxation under Schedule I, Item No. 117 and Schedule I, Item No. 129 of the said Act. In other words, the contention of the petitioners is that the bread and biscuits are the same, they should not be differently taxed. The purchasers and sellers of bread and biscuits have been differently taxed. In support of this contention reliance was placed on certain decisions of this Court, namely : -

State of Andhra Pradesh v. Nalla Raja Reddy, (1967) 3 SCR 28; New Manek Chowk Spinning and Weaving Mills Co. Ltd. v. Municipal Corpn. of the City of Ahmedabad, (1967) 2 SCR 679. We do not find any proposition in those decisions in support of this contention of the petitioners. The decision of the Allahabad High Court in Annapurna Biscuit (Mfg.) Co. v. State of U. P. (1975) 35 STC 127 does not deal with this contention at al