JUDGMENT

RANGANATHAN, J. - All these appeals and writ petitions raise a common question regarding the interpretation of Section 9(1) of the Haryana Sales Tax Act, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). Counsel state that the facts in all these appeal are identical and that the only facts necessary (or, at least, on record before us), on the basis of which the issue before us is to be decided, are these : Each of the appellants/petitioners (hereinafter referred to compendiously as assessees), is a registered dealer in the State of Haryana. He purchased certain raw materials in the State without paying tax thereon, in view of the provision contained in Section 24 of the Act. He then manufactured certain goods in the State with the aid of said raw materials. He then sold the manufactured goods to dealers who, in turn, exported those goods out of India. On these facts, it is claimed, the assessee is not liable to pay the purchase tax on the raw materials imposed under Section 9(1) of the Act. This claim has been rejected by the taxing authorities and the High Court and hence these appeals. The writ petitions have been filled directly in this Court in view of a learned Single Judge of the High Court having decided the issue against the assessees as early as November 25, 1980 in C.W.P. No. 1227 of 1980, which also affirmed by a Division Bench later.

2. The Act is a much-amended one and some of its provisions have been recently amended with retrospective effect from May 27, 1971, a point of time when actually a predecessor Act (the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948) had been in force. The provisions of the statute, relevant for our purpose, and their relevant amendments may be noticed first :

I. Section 2(e)

(a) Originally Section 2(e) defined export to mean "the taking out of goods from the State to any place outside it otherwise than by way of sale in the course of inter-State trade or commerce".

(b) Act 44 of 1976, added, at the end of the above definition, the following words w.e.f. April 1, 1976 : "or in the course of export out of the territory of India."

II. Section 2(p)

(a) Section 2(p) defined the expression turnover as including "the aggregate of the amounts of the sales and purchases ... made by any dealer" in any capacity during a given period. Explanation 2 to the second definition provided :

"Explanation 2 : The proceeds of the sale of any goods on the purchase of which tax is leviable under this Act or the purchase value of any goods on the sales of which tax is leviable under this Act, shall not be included in the turnover, but the purchase value of the goods liable to tax under Section 9 shall be included."

(b) Act 13 of 1989 amended the Explanation by inserting, in it, after the words "Section 9", the words "or Section 24."

(c) Act 1 of 1990 has amended the above Explanation retrospectively to say that the words "but the purchase value of the goods liable to tax under Section 9 or Section 24 shall be included" shall be omitted and shall be deemed always to have been omitted with effect from May 27, 1971. So we have to proceed on the basis that the underlined words never were there in clause (p) of Section 2. The 1990 Act also inserted an Explanation 6 to the clause w.e.f. March 31, 1983 which reads :

"Explanation 6 : The purchase of barely or of goods used in the manufacture of guar gum, scientific goods, utensils and metal handicrafts shall not form part of the turnover of a dealer for the period he is entitled to purchase the goods on the authority of his certificate of registration without payment of sales tax under Section 24, provided these are used exclusively for the specified purposes."

III. Section 6

Section 6, the charging Section, read as under :

"6. Incidence of taxation. - (1) subject to other provisions of this Act, every dealer whose gross turnover during the year immediately preceding the commencement of this Act exceeded the taxable quantum (Defined in Section 7) shall be liable to pay tax unde