JUDGMENT

RANGANATHAN, J.:— All these civil appeals and special leave petitions raise a common question as to the interpretation of an expression used in the Central Sales-tax Act. Some of these matters arise out of judgments of the High Court in Tax Revision cases and some out of judgments in writ petitions but the point involved is the same. In view of the pendency of the appeals, we grant leave in the special leave petitions after condoning the delay in filing some of them and proceed to dispose of all the appeals by a common order.

2. The respondents are all dealers in hides and skins carrying on business in the State of Tamil Nadu. As is well known, raw hides and skins undergo various processes such as cutting, tanning, dyeing, dressing and finishing before they get converted into finished leather and assume a condition fit for the manufacture of various kinds of leather articles. The dispute in these appeals is in regard to two items of goods that are sold by these assessees viz. leather splits and coloured leather. The splits are the cut pieces, often small and irregular, obtained in the process of cutting raw or tanned hides and skins either with a view to reduce their thickn