JUDGMENT :

S. Muralidhar, J.

Introduction

1. These three tax revision petitions by Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd. raise an identical question of law viz., whether Robinson Barley and Purity Barley manufactured by the Petitioner should be subject to sales of tax under the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947 (OST Act) under the entry meant for cereals covered under Entry 16 List C @ 4% or under the residual entry at 12%?

2. While TREV No.176 of 2001 pertains to the period 1990-91, STREV No.75 of 2003 pertains to the period 1991-92 and STREV No.30 of 2012 pertains to the period 2000-01. In each of the assessment orders passed for the aforementioned periods, the Sales Tax Officer (STO) i.e. Assessing Officer (AO) rejected the plea of the Petitioner that the aforementioned products of the Petitioner were nothing but barley as a cereal as mentioned in Entry 25 of List-C in Chapter III of the rate chart appended to the OST Act. The above orders have been confirmed by the Orissa Sales Tax Tribunal (‘Tribunal’) by rejecting the Petitioner’s appeals.

3. It requires to be noted at the outset that there