The judgment of the Court was delivered by

MADON, J. - Four questions have been referred to this Court by the Maharashtra Sales Tax Tribunal under section 9(2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"), read with section 61(1) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959. We will advert to these questions later, but at the present it is sufficient to say that the real controversy between the parties is whether the same transactions of inter-State sales which have been assessed to tax and the tax thereon collected by the Central Government through the agency of one State can subsequently be assessed through the agency of another State.

The facts which have given rise to this controversy are that the respondents are a public limited company. Their main place of business is situate in district Khammam in the State of Andhra Pradesh. It has not been found that they had at any material time a place of business in Bombay or at any other place in the State of Maharashtra. The respondents were registered as a dealer under the Act. They also had got themselves registered under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, as a non-resident dealer with effect from 4th Februa