The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

DAYAL, J. - The Judge (Revisions) Sales Tax has made a reference to this Court on 1371 reference applications before him. His referring order is dated the 30th December, 1955. One common referring order was made, as the points of law raised in those applications were mostly common and could be covered by the few questions formulated by the Judge (Revisions). Out of these 1371 references, 1318 are on the applications under section 11 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act made by the Commissioner, Sales Tax, Uttar Pradesh, and the remaining 53 are on the applications of different dealers. These applications for references were made in connection with a number of revisions which the various assessees had filed before the Judge (Revisions) against the assessment of sales tax made by the various Sales Tax Officers and for the consequential relief with respect to the refund of the amount of sales tax which the various applicants had deposited in the Government treasury.

The above reference arises under the following circumstances. In the U.P. Sales Tax Act, U.P. Act No. XV of 1948, the word "sale" was defined in clauses (h) of section 2 and in the