JUDGMENT

V. Ramaswami, J.

1. Civil Appeal No. 2309 of 1989 arises out of an order made by the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir in Writ Petition No. 87 of 1981 dismissing the Writ Petition filed by Mis. Pine Chemicals Ltd., which is a public limited company manufacturing Rosin, Turpentine and Rosin Derivatives and carrying on business at Bari Brahmana, Jammu Tawi. The appellants had prayed in the writ petition for quashing the order of assesment dated 20th January, 1981 made by the Assessing Authority, Incharge Sales Tax Circle, Jammu under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 for the year ending 30.6.1980 and the penalty order made on February 2, 1981 under Section 10 of the Central Sales Tax Act in respect of the same period. They had also prayed for a declaration that they are entitled to exemption from payment of tax under the Central Sales Tax Act and the Jammu & Kashmir General Sales Tax Act, 1962, on the finished goods produced by them for a period of five years commencing from 8th November, 1979, when the Company went into commercial production. This main relief had been prayed for on the grounds that the appellants were exempt from payment of sales tax in terms of the Government Orders No. 159 - Ind. dated 25.3.1971 as amended by Government Order No. 414-Ind. dated 25th August, 1971 read with Section 8(2A) of the Central Sales Tax Act. Their further case was that the Government represented and announced a package of incentive for large and medium scale industries incl uding grant of exemption from sales tax both on the raw materials purchased by the industries and the scale of their finished products, that acting upon such representation and assurances, appellants set up their factory at Bari Brah-mana on the land allotted by the State Industrial Development Corporation and that therefore the Government is estopped from charging sales tax on the doctrine of promissory estoppel. The High Court was of the view that the two Government orders referred to above were only declarations of an intention to exempt from payment of sales tax and that they are not exemption notifications under Sections 5 of the General Sales Tax Act. The High Court was also of the view that the appellants have failed to prove the necessary factual foundation for invoking the principle of promissory estoppel and that, therefore, they are not entitled to any relief under that doctrine. In that view the writ Petition was dismissed.

2. It may be mentioned that civil Appeal No. 2310 of 1985 is against an order made in a Civil Misc. Petition No. 2519 of 1988 which was also dismissed on 23.9.1988 along with the writ petition. This miscellaneous petition was filed after the judgment in the writ petition was reserved for permission to file reply affidavit on the ground that the assessment files produced at the time of hearing contained certain documents needing certain explanation by the appellants. Both on the ground that it was belated and on the ground that the judgment in the writ petition was delivered only relying on the material placed on record and therefore there was no need for giving an opportunity to the writ petitioners to file a reply statement, the learned judges dismissed this miscellaneous petition also.

3. Civil appeals 3140-50 of 1989 have been filed by Mis. K.C. Vanas-pati, a firm of partnership manufacturing Vanaspati Ghee at Bari Brahmana, Jammu Tawi. They filed writ petition 52 of 1982 praying to quash a sales tax assessment order dated 16.1.1982 assessing them to sales tax for the period from 2nd September, 1981 till the end of the month under the Jammu & Kashmir General Sales Tax Act. They also prayed for a mandamus directing the Government and the Assessing officer not to assess them to sales tax or recover any amount on account of sales tax from them for a period of five years from 2nd September, 1981 when their industry started commercial production. This relief was prayed again on the ground that Government Order 159-Ind. dated 26.3.197