SARJOO PROSAD, C.J.— The petitioner in this application has moved for an appropriate writ or direction quashing the order of assessment made by the Sales-Tax Officer, Nagour Circle, and restraining that Officer and the State of Rajasthan from imposing or realising the sales-tax so imposed.

2. The petitioner carries on business in cloth and gota" under a certificate of regis- tration under sec. 6 of the Rajasthan Sales-Tax Act, 1954 (Act No.XIX of 1954). He submitted his return of turnover for the assessment years 1956-57 and 1957-58 before the Sales-Tax Officer and claimed that he was not liable to pay any tax on coarse and medium cloth worth Rs. 9,574/- which he sold between 1st April, 1956, and 18th April, 1956, for the assessment year 1956-57, on the ground that the Rajasthan Sales-Tax Act did not apply to the sale of that variety of cloth. He claimed a similar exemption in respect of the sale of medium and coarse cloth worth Rs. 34,915/- during the assessment year 1957-58. These claims were disallowed by the Sales-Tax Officer, who held that those sales were assessable to tax.

3. The contention raised on behalf of the petitioner in this application is three-fold. Under Art.286(3) of the Constitution of India, no law made by the Legislature of the State imposing or authorising the imposing of a tax on the sale or purchase of any such goods as had been declared by Parliament by law to be essential for the life of the community could have effect until it had been reserved for the consideration of the President and received his assent. By virtue of the Essential Goods (Declaration and Regulation of Tax on Sale or Purchase) Act, 1952 (Act No. LII of 1952), coarse and medium cloth had been declared to be goods essential for the life of the community. Therefore, it was necessary that the provision in the Sales-Tax Act authorising the levy of sales-tax on coarse and medium cloth should have received the assent of the President before it was put into force. Sec. 28 of the Sales-Tax Act purported to levy tax on coarse and medium cloth upto 31.3.56. This Act had the assent of the President. Sec. 28 was amended by the Rajasthan Sales-Tax (Amendment) Act, 1956 (Act No. 5 of 1956), according to which the tax could be levied upto 31st March, 1957 but this Amendment did not receive the assent of the President before it was put into force and therefore, it could have no effect so far as the sale of coarse and medium cloth and other goods essential for the life of the community were concerned; and any such imposition after 31st March, 1956, on the authority of the amended provision was illegal. The second contention is that the Act itself came into force on the 1st of April, 1955, by virtue of a notification in the Rajasthan Gazette dated 12th March, 1955. whereas the Rajasthan Sales-Tax Rules, 1955, came into force on the 29th March,1955 when they were published in the Rajasthan Rajpatra and since the Rules were framed before the coming into force of the Act itself under which the framing of the Rules could be authorised, the Rules could not take effect. The third contention of the learned counsel is based upon the application of Rule 15 of the Rules framed under the Sales-Tax Act. The contention is that in the return of turnover for the year 1956-57 the petitioner claimed that he was not liable to pay sales-tax on imported "gota" and cloth worth Rs. 42,945/- on the ground that the tax payable by the dealer could be imposed at a single point only in the series of sales of successive dealers. According to Rule 15 the tax payable on the above commodities at the first point in the series of sales could only be when the commodities in question were first sold to the assessee and since the petitioner had purchased the goods in Rajasthan from dealers outside Rajasthan, who were liable to pay sales-tax on the first sale made by them to the petitioner, the petitioner could not be liable for payment of any tax in respect of these commodities.

4. So far

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