The production of photographs and supplying them to the customers for a price constitutes a "manufacture of goods" within the meaning of Section 2 (k) of the Act. When the photographs produced or made for an individual are sold to him, there is necessarily a sale of the material utilised for bringing them into existence.

( 1 ) IN this case stated by the Commissioner of Sales Tax under Section 13 (1) of the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, 1950, the contest is as regards the liability of the Petitioner Messrs. D. Masanda and Co. , to pay sales tax in respect of photographic goods and materials imported by him during the year 1952-53 and used by him in his business activities as a photographer. Under Section 3 CD (a)of the Act and the notification issued by the Government on 22nd May, 1950, in exercise of its powers under Section 5 of the Act, sales tax at the rate of Rs. 6-4-0 per cent is payable by importers of "scientific apparatus of every kind, cameras, camera lenses and other photographic material. The relevant entry in the notification prescribing the rate of sales tax reads as follows: during the year 1952-1953, the assessee imported photographic material of the value of Rs. 37,559/ -. Of these goods materials of the value of Rs. 11,900/- were, according to the tax-payer, utilised by him in taking Photographs and supplying copies thereof to the order of his customers on payment. Before the taxing authority, the asses-see contended that he could not be assessed to sales tax on the value of the material used by him in taking photographs as there was no sale of this material when with the aid of that material he took photographs for his customers and supplied to them copies of photographs on payment. This contention was rejected by the taxing authority, and the petitioner was assessed to sales tax on the value of photographic material imported by him and utilised by him in his business as a photographer. The assessment made by the Sales Tax officer was upheld in revision by the Commissioner of Sales Tax, who has now stated this case at the instance of the assessee for the opinion of this Court on the following question:-- "whether photographic materials consumed in the process of manufacture of the photographic work could be treated as sale under Section 2 (o)of the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, and whether the assessee could be said to be a dealer vis-a-vis such material within the meaning of Section 2 (f) of Madhya bharat Sales Tax Act"?

( 2 ) MR. Chaphekar, learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner, put his case in two aspects. First it was said that when a client comes to be photographed and orders a certain number of copies of the photograph what is given to the client on payment is the resultant effect of the materials and chemicals used in photography and that there is no sale to him of any of the materials or chemicals used in taking photographs, and that the materials and chemicals used by the assessee are not used for a particular person but are used for taking a number of photographs ordered by various customers. The other way learned counsel submitted his case was that the tax payer's business as a photographer is more in the nature of a service than of a sale: that when a customer comes to the assessee for being photo-graphed and obtains copies thereof, the order placed by him is not a transaction comparable to that of a sale of an article in a shop but that it is a contract for work and labour done and material supplied within the authority of clay v. Yates, (1856) 1 H. and N. 73 (A ).

( 3 ) IN order to determine the validity of these contentions, it is necessary to see what exactly is the course of business followed by the assessee and what precisely he does when he takes photographs and supplies copies thereof to his customers on payment. The petitioner has not given a statement of the course of his business and the services rendered by him when he takes photographs and gives copies thereof to his customers on payment. But it was not disputed before us that the method, process and Procedure followed by the assessee in taking photographs are no different from those adopted by a portrait photographer. Now, it is well known that photography is the art and science of making light images formed in a camera into a permanent