The judgment of the court was delivered by

VENKATESWARA RAO, J. - Three questions arise for consideration in this batch of writ petitions and they are : (1) whether the second limb of item 6 of Schedule III of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, which will hereinafter be referred to as the "Act", is repugnant to the provisions of section 15(a) of the Central Sales Tax Act and article 14 of the Constitution and is, therefore, liable to be struck down, (2) whether neem oil and tobacco seed oil are exempt from tax by virtue of G.O.Ms. No. 581, Revenue, dated 14th March, 1960, and (3) whether in any view, "tobacco seed", "tobacco seed oil" and "tobacco seed oil-cake" are goods coming within the purview of "tobacco and all its products" specified in item 7 of Schedule IV of the Act and are therefore exempt from tax.

The petitioners in all these cases are registered dealers under the Act and have been carrying on business in groundnut, tobacco seed, tobacco seed oil, tobacco seed oil-cake, neem seed oil etc., in the Guntur district. Some of them were assessed by the concerned Commercial Tax Officers to tax in relation to the turnover in the goods mentioned above for certain years and the taxes so assessed were also collected. In some cases, the Commercial Tax Officers concerned issued notices proposing to make final assessment for certain years and provisional assessment for the year 1969-70 while in some of those cases the petitioners made provisional payments pursuant to the assessments. At that stage, they filed these writ petitions praying for the issuance of either writs of certiorari to quash the orders made by the Commercial Tax Officers concerned, assessing them in relation to turnover in groundnuts, groundnut kernel, tobacco seed, tobacco seed oil, tobacco seed oil-cake and neem seed oil during the relevant years and to direct refund of the amount that was already paid by them pursuant to the alleged illegal assessments, or writs of prohibition interdicting the concerned Commercial Tax Officers from assessing them to tax on the turnover relating to the aforesaid goods for the assessment years mentioned in the relevant petitions as per the notices issued to them and to direct refund in such of those cases in which provisional payments were already made pursuant to the impugned orders. It is alleged in the affidavits filed in support of the petitions that item 6 of Schedule III of the Act violates section 15(a) of the Central Sales Tax Act, inasmuch as it prescribes for each variety of declared goods including groundnuts, two stages instead of one, one at the point of the first purchase where millers buy and another at the stage of the last purchase where dealers other than millers buy the goods. It is also repugnant to article 14 of the Constitution as the classification between miller-dealers and non-miller-dealers bears no rational relation to the purpose sought to be achieved. The fixation of two different stages for levy of tax would render it possible for the same goods being subjected to tax more than once. Item 6 of Schedule III of the Act, to the extent it prescribes a second or alternate point of purchase is, therefore, beyond the legislative competence of the State and is liable to be struck down. The Commercial Tax Officers have no jurisdiction to tax tobacco seed, tobacco seed oil and tobacco seed oil-cake as they constitute either "tobacco" or its "products" within the meaning of item 7 of Schedule IV of the Act and are, therefore, exempt from the liability to tax. In any view, tobacco seed oil and neem seed oil are not liable to be taxed in view of G.O.Ms. No. 581 dated 14th March, 1960. So, the assessment or proposed assessment of the petitioners in relation to the turnover in groundnut, groundnut kernel tobacco seed, tobacco seed oil, tobacco seed oil-cake and neem seed oil for the years mentioned in the respective petitions is illegal and without jurisdiction. Some of the petitions suffered th