ORDER

CAs Nos. 1649-54 of 2001 and WPs Nos. 110,615 of 2000, 213 of 2003 and 222 of 2004

1. The appellant purchases gas from the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) which is supplied by it through pipelines from the State of Gujarat to the purchasers within Gujarat and in various other States. According to the appellant, these were only stock transfers in respect of which local sales tax had been paid not only in Gujarat but also in the States in which the sales ultimately took place. In respect of Assessment Years 1994-95 to 1999-2000, assessment orders were passed against the appellant under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (for short "the Act") on the ground that the transfers effected by the appellant were in fact inter-State sales within the meaning of the 1956 Act and, therefore, liable to Central sales tax and that in the absence of any form the appellant was not entitled to the benefit of the concessional rate of the sales tax duty.

2. These appeals have been preferred directly from the assessment orders without exhausting the remedies available to the appellant either under the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969 or if that was not available for any reason, then a to the High Cou