The commodities mentioned in items 144 and 147 of the First Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957, cannot be considered as declared goods under section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, and consequently section 6 of the State Act has no application to the goods mentioned therein.

( 1 ) IN these writ petitions the common question raised is that entries 144 and 147 of the First Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act are ultra vires and violative of article 286 (3) of the Constitution of India read with section 15 (a) of the Central Sales Tax Act.

( 2 ) THE petitioners are dealers in rice, ravva, dhalls and grains at different places in the State of Andhra Pradesh. Their main complaint is that ravva obtained from rice or wheat and fried gram dhall are not liable to be taxed at the rate of 1 per cent and 5 per cent respectively as per entries 144 and 147 of the First Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act.

( 3 ) THE question that arises for consideration is whether ravva obtained from wheat, rice or maize and parched and fried Bengal gram are assessable to tax at the rates and conditions mentioned in items 144 and 147 of the First Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the State Act), after the amendment of the Central Sales Tax Act by Act No. 103 of 1976, which came into force with effect from 7/09/1976. While the petitioners contend that items 144 and 147 of the First Schedule no longer have any legs to stand, the respondents contend that the position remains unchanged.

( 4 ) THE main contention advanced on behalf of the petitioners is that ravva and rice are one and the same commodity. Ravva is nothing but granulated rice or rice made into small particles. No manufacturing process is involved. No new substance is added and since rice was included in section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act (hereinafter called the Central Act) as one of the declared goods by the Central Sales Tax (Amendment) Act (103 of 1976) with effect from 7/09/1976, the levy of tax by the State is subject to the restrictions contained in section 15 (a) of the Central Act which says that the tax payable under the State law in respect of any sale or purchase of such goods inside the State shall not exceed four per cent of the sale or purchase price thereof, and such tax shall not be levied at more than one stage. Hence the imposition of tax as per clause (b) of item 144 of the First Schedule which imposes additional tax of one paisa in the rupee on ravva obtained from wheat, rice or maize which has already met tax under the State Act is illegal. Similarly they contend that parched or fried Bengal gram is not different from gram or gulab gram. They are one and the same excepting that the Bengal gram is fried and converted into fried gram. Since gram is also specified as one of the goods of special importance in inter-State trade and commerce under section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act with effect from 7/09/1976, item 147 of the First Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax does not apply.

( 5 ) IN support of the contention that rice and ravva are one and the same commodity, the petitioners relied upon a decision of the Supreme Court in Alladi Venkateswarlu v. Government of Andhra Pradesh [1978] 41 STC 394 (SC ). They also relied upon the decisions in T. R. C. No. 137 of 1978 dated 22/11/1978, which followed the decisions in Alladi Venkateswarlu v. Government of Andhra Pradesh [1978] 41 STC 394 (SC), Tungabhadra Industries Ltd. v. Commercial Tax Officer [1960] 11 STC 827 (SC), Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Jaswant Singh Charan Singh [1967] 19 STC 469 (SC) and State of Andhra Pradesh v. Sri Durga Hardware Stores [1973] 32 STC 322.

( 6 ) MR. S. Dasaratharama Reddi, the learned counsel for the petitioners in some of the writ petitions, raised the same contention, namely, that ravva obtained from wheat is the same commodity as wheat and since wheat is one of the declared goods under section 14 of the Central Act, it is liable to be taxed under item 16 of the Third Schedule and not under item 144 of the First Schedule to the State Act.

( 7 ) IN order to appreciate the rival contentions it is necessary to refer to certain provisions of the State