Mahajan, J.

1. This is a petition under Articles 226, and 227 of the Constitution of India. In this petition, the validity of certain provisions of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (hereinafter called the Act), as amended by Punjab General Sales Tax (Haryana Amendment and Validation) Act, 1967 (hereinafter called the Amendment Act) is called in question.

2. The petitioner is a Private Limited Company and carries on business of purchase and sale of cotton at Hansi. Prior to the 1st of Novemeber, 1966, Hansi was part of Punjab State (hereinafter referred to as the Old Punjab). After the reorganisation of the Punjab by the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 (Act No. 31 of 1966) from the appointed day, that is the Ist of November, 1966, the territory of the Old Punjab was divided to form the State of Haryana, the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the State of Punjab (New Punjab) and part of the territories were transferred to Himachal Pradesh.

3. The Reorganisation Act, in S. 2, defines Old Punjab as existing State of Punjab, namely the State of Punjab as pointed day. The new State of Punjab is defined in section 2 (1) as the State with the same name, comprising the ter