( 1 ) LEAVE granted in the special Leave Petitions.

( 2 ) THE Constitution (Sixth Amendment) Act, 1956 recast Article 286 of the Constitution almost in its entirety. It inserted sub-clause (g) in clause (1) of Article 269 and introduced clause (3) in Article 269. The Constitution (Forty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1982 substituted clause (3) of Article 286. As amended by Sixty and Forty-sixth Amendment Acts,

ARTICLE 286 reads :

"286 (1 ). No law of a State shall impose, or authorise the imposition of, a tax on the sale or purchase of goods where such sale or purchase takes place -

(A) outside the State; or

(B) in the course of the import of the goods into, or export of the goods out of, the territory of India,

(2) Parliament may be law formulate principles for determining when a sale or purchase of goods takes place in any of the ways mentioned in clause (1 ).

(3) Any law of a State shall, insofar as it imposes, or authorises the imposition of,-

(A) a tax on the sale or purchase of goods declared by Parliament by law to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce; or

(B) a tax on the sale or purchase of goods, being a tax of the nature referred to in sub-clause (b), sub-clause (c)