JAGADISAN, J.

This is a petition by the State of Madras for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of India from the judgment of this Court in T.C. No. 162 of 1958 (Since reported as Madura Mills Co., Ltd. v. State of Madras Leave is asked for under Article 133 of the Constitution of India. The respondent, the Madura Mills Co., Ltd., opposed the application, and raised a preliminary objection that the application is not maintainable under Article 133 or under sections 109 and 110 of the Civil Procedure Code as the proceedings which terminated in this Court in the order sought to be appealed from are not civil proceedings. This is the main question which has now been argued before us, and if we were to uphold the objection of the respondent, the application will have to be rejected in limine, without going into the question whether the case is a fit one for a necessary certificate under Article 133.

We shall now briefly set out the facts which gave rise to T.C. No. 162 of 1958 disposed of by us on 13th September, 1961. The Madura Mills Co. Ltd., the respondent, is a limited company dealing in yarn. In December, 1950, it returned a total turnover of Rs. 15, 27, 61, 833-8-4 under the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939, before the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer, Madurai. The officer determined the net turnover at Rs. 15, 44, 09, 109-3-11. The assessee preferred an appeal from that assessment before the Commercial Tax Officer, Madurai South. It raised the contention that a sum of Rs. 1, 44, 294-14-4 was wrongly included by the assessing authority in the purchase value of cotton, as that amount represented the commission paid by it to Comorin Investment Trading Co., another limited company. It further contended that another sum of Rs. 81, 546-0-1 representing the sale proceeds realised by selling the empty drums and other miscellaneous articles was not includible in the business turnover. The Commercial Tax Officer upheld the contention in relation to a sum of Rs. 1, 44, 294-14-4 and excluded it from the total turnover, but negatived the other contention in regard to the sum of Rs. 81, 546-0-1. The respondent then preferred a revision petition before the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, and raised an objection that it should not have been assessed to tax on amounts collected by it by way of tax amounting to Rs. 6, 57, 971-4-9. No objection was raised by the respondent in regard to any other matter dealt with by the Commercial Tax Officer. By an order dated 21st August, 1954, the Deputy Commissioner dismissed the revision petition. The Board of Revenue, Madras, issued notice to the respondent on 4th August, 1958, proposing to revise the assessment of the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer on the ground that a sum of Rs. 7, 74, 62, 706-1-6 was wrongly excluded by the assessing authority. This was objected to by the respondent, and one of the grounds of objection was that the proceedings initiated by the Board of Revenue were barred by limitation. The Board overruled the objections of the assessee, and by its order dated 25th August, 1958, fixed the net turnover of the respondent at Rs. 23, 17, 15, 948-15-2. From this decision the respondent preferred an appeal under section 12(c) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939, to this Court in T.C. No. 162 of 1958. We allowed the appeal and set aside the order of the Board mainly on the ground that the proceedings of the Board were beyond the period of limitation prescribed by the statute. It is this decision which is now the subject-matter of the contemplated appeal by the State to the Supreme Court of India.The Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939, does not contain any special provision to enable the State or the aggrieved subject to prefer an appeal to the Supreme Court of India from a decision of this Court arising out of the proceedings under the Act. The Act is a self-contained, exhaustive code governing assessment and levy of sales tax. A hierarchy of authorities has been co