RAJAGOPALAN, J.

This application for revision arises out of the assessment proceedings for 1952-53 under the provisions of the Madras General Sales Tax Act. The assessment was completed on 31st March, 1954.

The petitioner, the Indian Coffee Board, is a statutory body constituted under the provisions of the Coffee Market Expansion Act, VII of 1942. The scope of Act VII of 1942 was explained in Indian Coffee Board v. State of Madras where it was held that despite the statutory composition the Board was a dealer as defined by section 2(b) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, (hereinafter, referred to as the Act). The learned counsel for the petitioner, however, represented that he was not accepting as correct the decision in Indian Coffee Board v. State of Madras But as a decision of a Division Bench of this Court, it is an authority which we are bound to follow. It is on the basis of the liability of the petitioner as a dealer within the meaning of the Act that we shall consider the several heads of assessment, to the inclusion of which in the turnover the petitioner objected unsuccessfully before the Appellate Tribunal. Despite the contention, that the petitioner was not a dealer at all as defined by the Act, the petitioner obtained registration as a dealer under the provisions of the Act.

Three items, to the inclusion of which in its taxable turnover the petitioner Board objected, can be considered together. Rs. 6, 14, 510-13-0 represented the total of the amounts the petitioner Board collected by way of tax under the authority of section 8-B of the Act on the sales effected by it. A further sum of Rs. 9, 598-3-3 was collected by the Board from its purchasers to cover any claim that might be made by the department on the basis that the amounts collected by the Board by way of tax were themselves liable to be included in the petitioner's taxable turnover. Rs. 1, 63, 259-12-3 represented the total of the collections made by the Board from its purchasers, which the Board showed in its books as a "contingency deposit." The nature of these collections was correctly explained by the Appellate Tribunal in paragraph 12 of its judgment :-

"It is conceded by the Board that it collected this amount only to cover the tax on certain sale transactions which in its view were not liable to be taxed by the Madras State. It collected this amount in order to safeguard its interests in case it should be decided that these were transactions which are liable to tax under the Madras General Sales Tax Act." *

The Board contended that a sum of Rs. 85, 03, 048-11-0 was the turnover of sales in the course of export and that a sum of Rs. 14, 52, 297-1-0 was the turnover of inter-State sales, and that both these were entitled for exemption from taxation granted by Article 286 of the Constitution. We shall deal with these contentions later in the judgment. It should be sufficient to mention at this stage that in our opinion these two items were also rightly held by the Tribunal to be liable to sales tax under the Act. Rs. 1, 63, 259-12-3 was the total of the amounts collected by the Board to cover the levy of sales tax on the two items of sales referred to above. Though the collection was on a provisional basis they were still collections by way of tax under section 8-B of the Act. As pointed out, the turnover of the sales in question was taxable. Thus all the three items, (1) Rs. 6, 14, 310-13-0, (2) Rs. 9, 598-3-3 and (3) Rs. 1, 63, 259-12-3, fell within the scope of section 8-B of the Act.

The inclusion of these three items in the taxable turnover of the petitioner Board was upheld by the Appellate Tribunal on the basis of the Madras General Sales Tax (Definition of Turnover and Validation of Assessments) Act, XVII of 1954. Though the petitioner challenged the validity of Act, XVII of 1954 before the Appellate Tribunal, the Tribunal declined to investigate that question. We have upheld the validity of the impugned Act in T.R.C. No. 58 of 1955 (Si