The interpretation of 'sale' under the Tamil Nadu General ST Act, 1959 hinges on the transfer of property, and in the case of a members' club, acting as an agent for its members, no sale would be involved.

SETHURAMAN, J.

These six tax revisions petition arise out of the sales-tax assessment for the asst. yrs. 1963-64 to 1968-69 in respect of the transactions in the canteen run by the Madras Advocates' Co-operative Society. the Society is registered under the Madras Co-operative Society Act (IV of 1932). One of the objects of the Society is the running of a restaurant for the benefit of the members, on a non profit basis. On 22nd February, 1969, the Dy. CTO. Esplanade I Division inspected the canteen and found that it was no assessed to sales-tax and that it had not been registered under the Act. He issued a notice to produce the accounts which was complied with by the Society. The Society later on furnished the turnover particulars for the several years for which the particulars were required from the Society. From the accounts, it was found that the canteen had effected sales for the different years of particular amounts, the details of which need not be gone into. Pre-assessment notices were issued proposing to tax the turnover for the several years gathered from the accounts. The assessee filed objections sating that the assessee was not taxable under the Tamil Nadu General ST Act, 1959 as it was neither a dealer nor doing any business and as its transactions did not amount to sales. It was further stated that if the turnover was found to be assessable, ten the assessments could be compounded under S. 7. The objections were over-ruled and the transactions were held liable to tax. The respective amounts for several years as gathered from the accounts were therefore brought to tax. Appeals were filed before the AAC and they were unsuccessful.

2. In the further appeals before the Tribunal, the assessee contended that it was only distributing food to its members and that there was no transfer of property in goods or sale. It was also contended that the assessee was not doing any business so as to come within the purview of ss. (i) or (r) of S. 2. Various other contentions were also advanced.

3. The Tribunal considered three points as arising from the several contentions viz., (1) Whether the Society supplied tiffin and refreshments to non-members; (2) whether the supplies to members amounted to sales and (3) Whether the Society was a dealer within the meaning of S. 2(g) of the Act. There is a definite finding of the Tribunal that the society was supplying tiffin and refreshments only to its bona fide members. On the other two points also the Tribunal accepted the assessee's submissions. The result was that the assessments were cancelled.

4. In the present appeals the learned counsel for the Revenue submitted that these are cases where the commercial tax authorities found that there was some sales of tiffin and refreshments to non-members also. On this point, there is a definite finding of the Tribunal that the Society was supplying tiffin and refreshment only to its bona fide members. This being a finding of fact, it cannot merit interference at our hands. Further, the question as to whether there were sales to non-members was taken up only in the course of the proceedings after the assessments. In fact in the previous assessment, it was not alleged that there were only sales to non-members. On the finding as it is, we have to proceed on the basis that there were no sales of refreshments to any non-members.

5. The next point for consideration is whether the assessee effected to any sales within the meaning of the Tamil Nadu General ST Act, 1969. There are two decisions on this point and they were brought to our notice. The first decision is reported in Dy. CTO vs. E.I.L. Co-operative Canteen Limited. This decisions has been considered by a fuller Bench of the Supreme Court in a later decision reported in the Joint CTO, Harbour Division II, Madras vs. Young Men's Indian Association, Madras. In the second decision the assessee were three, namely Cosmopolitan Club registered under S. 26 of the Companies Act, 1913, as a non-pr