The main legal point established is that the nature of a contract, whether for sale of goods or for work, is determined by the object of the contract and the application of labor and service in its execution.

( 1 ) IN these four connected sales tax revision petitions the following question of law has been referred for the opinion of the Full Bench :

"where a contract under which an assessee agrees to supply jelly (ballast) to the purchaser with the condition that the jelly (ballast) would be stacked in a particular manner before delivering would amount to a contract for work or a composite contract for sale of goods and for work. "

( 2 ) THE brief facts of these cases, which have given rise to the above question, are as follows :

(i) The petitioner, who is common in all these petitions, is an assessee under the provisions of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act" ). Under contracts entered into between him and the railway department, he supplied ballast (which is called "jelly" in kannada) which is used by the railway department as bed or substratum for the railway track or, in other words, for the ballasting of the railway track. According to the terms of the contract, the assessee was required to supply and stack specified quantity of ballast at different points, i. e. , near each telegraph post alongside of the length of the railway line in Gadag section as specified in the contract. Under the terms of the contract, he was entitled to different rates as specified for the delivery of ballast at different points. His turnover for the supply of ballast under such contract was brought to tax, by separate assessment orders made for the assessment years 1962-63, 1963-64, 1964-65 and 1965-66, by the Commercial Tax Officer, Gadag. Thereafter, the assessee made an application before the assessing officer under rule 38 of the Karnataka Sales tax Rules, 1957, for rectification of the assessment orders and to exempt the entire amount treated as sales turnover by holding that supplying and stacking of ballast did not amount to sale but was a works contract. The cause for making the application was the judgment of this Court in state of Mysore v. S. R. Bhide ([1969] 24 S. T. C. 446; (1968) 2 Mys. L. J. 557.), in which it was held that a contract for collection and training out of ballast alongside the rail track amounts to works contract and not sale. The assessee urged that the work of "collection and stacking" of ballast alongside the railway line at specified points undertaken by him was also similar to "training out" of ballast and, therefore, the levy of tax under the Act was illegal. The Commercial tax Officer passed four separate rectification orders on 4th January, 1969, allowing the applications of the assessee and exempting the assessee from levy of sales tax for the four assessment years.

(ii) Thereafter the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Dharwar, in exercise of his revisional powers under section 21 (2) of the Act, made a common order dated 17th July, 1972, setting aside the four orders dated 4th January, 1969, made by the Commercial Tax Officer. The deputy Commissioner took the view that the decision of this Court in Bhide's case ([1969] 24 s. T. C. 446; (1968) 2 Mys. L. J. 557) was not applicable to the case of the assessee, as in his case the contract for all the four years was only collection and stacking of ballast and not collection and "training out" as in Bhide's case ([1969] 24 S. T. C. 446; (1968) 2 Mys. L. J. 557. ).

(iii) The assessee preferred appeals against the order of the Deputy Commissioner to the Sales tax Appellate Tribunal. The Full Bench of the Tribunal by majority dismissed the appeals by a common order. Against the said order the assessee has preferred these revision petitions under section 23 (1) of the Act.

(iv) Before the Division Bench, the petitioner relying on the earlier Division Bench decision in bhide's case ([1969] 24 S. T. C. 446; (1968) 2 Mys. L. J. 557.) contended that in view of that decision, the work undertaken by the petitioner for collecting and stacking of ballast was the same as the work of collecting and training out of ballast, w