RAMASWAMI, J.

The appellants in the writ appeals are two hoteliers, one known as Sree Annapoorna and the other known as Sree Gowrisankar. All the tax cases have been filed by the department against the orders of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Coimbatore. The assessees in these tax cases are the two writ appellants above referred to. The assessment years relating to these tax cases and the writ appeals are 1973-74, 1974-75 and the period from 1st April, 1975, to 31st May, 1975, in 1975-76. The appellants in the writ appeals as also the respondents in the tax cases will hereafter be referred to as the assessees.

The assessees are running restaurants in Coimbatore. They were supplying food and drinks inside their restaurant premises to the customers providing seating facilities and other facilities like fan, light, music, etc. The Joint Commercial Tax Officer, Coimbatore, assessed these transactions as sales in his orders dated 21st November, 1974, 28th August, 1975, and 7th August, 1975, for the assessment years 1973-74, 1974-75 and the broken period in 1975-76. The assessees went in appeal in all these cases. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner applying the decision in