BILAL NAZKI, J, J.

( 1 ) THESE writ petitions and revisions raise same questions of law and fact and therefore, they are being disposed of by this common judgment.

( 2 ) HEARD learned Counsel for the parties and perused the record. Counter has been filed.

( 3 ) THE controversy is in a very short compass. All the petitioners are private educational institutions and all of these institutions are running hostels for providing boarding and lodging facilities to the inmates of the educational institutions. The purchases of foodstuffs made from unregistered dealers and supplied to the students as food, have been assessed under section 6-A of the Andhra Pradesh General sales Tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act' ). The matter went upto the sales Tax Appellate Tribunal (for short 'the tribunal' ). The Tribunal also decided in favour of Revenue. Therefore, these writ petitions and the revisions.

( 4 ) THE learned Counsel for petitioners submit that as a matter of fact, the primary object of these educational institutions is to impart education to the students and education cannot be imparted to the students if arrangements for their food are not made by the petitioner-institutions and therefore, it is necessary to have hostels for providing food to the students. It is further submitted that the institutions are not engaged in any business activity within the. meaning of the definition 'business' under section 2 (1) (bbb) of the Act, which reads as under? 'business' includes,?

(i) any trade, commerce or manufacture or any adventure or concern in the nature of trade, commerce or manufacture whether or not such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern is carried on or undertaken with a motive to make gain or profit and whether or not any gain or profit accrues therefrom; and

(ii) any transaction in connection with or incidental or ancillary to such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern; and

(iii) any transaction in connection with or incidental or ancillary to the commencement or closure of such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern. "

( 5 ) WHETHER a particular activity is business activity or not, has received the attention of various Courts and there are several judgments on which the petitioners have relied. One of the judgments, which appears to have been approved also by the supreme Court, is a judgment from allahabad High Court in The Indian Institute of Technology v. State of U. P. , 38 STC 428. The facts of this case were better for revenue than the facts in the present case. In the case before the Allahabad High court, the Indian Institute of Technology, kalyanpur was maintaining a hostel for the scholars, who would come for a brief period to the institute for the purpose of research. This hostel was also available to the friends and relatives of the students of the Institute of Technology. The food being supplied there was assessed to Sales Tax. The High court of Allahabad, considering the rival arguments and the judgments placed before it, came to the conclusion?

"the distinction laid down in the aforesaid decisions between a case, on the one hand, where the principal activity of an institution is doing business in a commercial way, and, on the other hand, a case where its principal activity is predominantly academic or charitable and an activity which may appear to have some incidents of business is only minor, subsidiary and incidental to the principal activity and is an integral part of it, is apposite and affords valuable guidance. Reverting to the facts of the instant case, it is clear that the petitioner is essentially a residential institution where all students, research scholars and research fellows have to reside in the halls of residence and hostels built by the Institute and, in that connection, it has to supply foodstuffs to the inmates of the hostels as also incidentally to the relatives of the inmates and other persons who come and stay in the hostel in connectio

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