I.A. Ansari, J.

1. Respondent No. 1, namely, Oil and Natural Gas Commission Ltd., a Government of India Enterprise, is incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as, "the Corporation"). Respondent Nos. 2 and 3 are employees of respondent No. 1. The respondent-Corporation has been publishing, from time to time, tender notices inviting tender for hiring various types of vehicles, for instance, cranes, water tankers, trailers, etc. As per these tender notices, the respondent-Corporation offers fixed monthly charges for the vehicles for twenty-six days in a month as the working days with fixed running charges per kilometre, the normal running of the vehicles being twelve hour per day. Pursuant to the tender notices so floated, a contract was entered into between respondent No. 7, on the one hand, and the petitioner, on the other, for hiring of cranes. The petitioner claims that he was verbally informed by the officials of the respondent-Corporation that the petitioner's contract with the respondent-Corporation would be treated as "sale" within the meaning of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003, and that deduction from the petitioner's bills would be made