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In the United States of America there have been a considerable number of cases in which the Supreme Court has explicitly and avowedly overruled its prior decisions but there have been more instances in which the doctrines declared in prior cases have been in part evaded or 'modified without explicit repudiation. (Willoughby-Constitution of the United States, 2nd Edn., Vol. 1, pp. 74- 75). In State of Washington v. Dawson & Co., 264 U.S. 646; 68 L.Ed. 219 , Brandies, J. in his dissenting judgment said:

In a foot-note to this judgment the learned Judge set out a large number of instances where the earlier decisions had been overruled. In another dissenting judgment in David Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Company, 285 U.S. 393; 76 L.Ed. 815 the same learned Judge, after quoting a passage from the judgment of Mr. Justice Lurton in Hertz v. Woodman, 218 U.S. 205, 212; 51 L.Ed. 1001, 1005 proceeded to say: "Stare decisis is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled right. Compare National Bank v. Whitney, 103 U.S. 99; 26 L.Ed. 443-444 . This is commonly true even where the error is a matter of serious concern, provided correction can be bad by, legislation. But in cases involving the Federal Constitution, where correction through legislative action is practically impossible, this Court has often overruled its earlier decisions. The Court bows to the lessons of experience and the force of better reasoning recognising that the process of trial and error, so fruitful in the physical sciences, is appropriate also in the judicial function".

(a). This it does by creating a fiction. That fiction is only for the purposes of sub-clause (a) and cannot be extended to any other purpose. It should be limited to its avowed purpose. To say that this Explanation confers legislative power on what for the sake of brevity has been called the delivery State is to use it for a collateral purpose which is not permissible. Further, it is utterly illogical and untenable to say that article 286 which was introduced in the Constitution to place restrictions on the legislative powers of the States, by aside wind,, as it were, gave enlarged legislative powers to the State of delivery by an explanation sandwiched between two restrictions. This construction runs counter to the entire scheme of the article and the explanation and one may see no justification for imputing such indirect and oblique purpose to this article. Had the Constitution makers so desired they could have done so in a more direct and straight-forward way. To hold that the Explanation has, besides its declared purpose, another hidden purpose of conferring or enlarging legislative power is to build up a fanciful argument merely on the unfelicitous and involved language used in the Explanation although it is distinctly not the purpose of the Explanation and although it does not purport substantively and proprio vigore, to confer any legislative power on any State. Its only purpose is to explain what an outside sale is so that, by one stroke, as it were, it takes away the taxing power, in respect of sales or purchases of the kind referred to in the Explanation, of all States other than the State where such sales or purchases are, by the Explanation, to be deemed to have taken place. This view of the Explanation was taken in the dissenting judgment in the case of the State of Travancore-Cochin v. Shanmugha Vilas Cashew Nut Factory (supra). The view that the Explanation is only for the purposes of sub-clause (a) of clause (1) and cannot be carried over to clause (2) was also taken in the dissenting judgment in The State of Bombay v. The United Motors (India) Ltd. (supra) at p. 1103.

Another argument adumbrated in the majority judgment in The State of Bombay v. The United Motors (India) Ltd. (supra) at p. 1081 and at pp. 1086-1087 and elaborated before us is that just as the freedom of trade referred to in article 301 has been made to give way to the States' power of imposing non-discriminatory taxes by article 304 so must article 286(2) be regarded as subject to the States' taxing power, for the protection of article 286(2) could not have been intended to be larger. This argument was refuted by the dissenting judgment in that Bombay case (supra) at pp. 1102- 1103 and p. 1127 and also by the dissenting judgment in The State of Travancore Cochin v. Shanmugha Vilas Cashew Nut Factory (supra) at p. 89. Nothing that we have heard on the present occasion induces us to depart from the views expressed on this subject in those dissenting judgments. It is next urged that the Explanation in effect operates as an exception or a proviso to clause (2). This view runs directly counter to the express language of the Explanation itself. So the argument is formulated in a slightly different way. It is said that clause (2) contains the enunciation of the general rule and the Explanation embodies a particular or special rule. According to a cardinal rule of construction the particular or special rule must control or cut down the general rule. This view was adopted by the High Court in the judgment under appeal and also found favour with one of the Judges in the Bombay case (supra). It appears to us that this argument overlooks the basic fact that clause (1) (a) to which is appended the Explanation and clause (2) deal with different topics altogether. The Explanation is concerned with explaining what is an outside sale or purchase by fixing a fictional situs. It cannot be read as a provision independent of clause (1) (a). It does not, by itself and in terms, confer any legislative power on any State. It is true that the Explanation may apply to fix the Situs Of many inter-State transactions but that is only for ascertaining, for the purposes of clause (1) (a), whether it has taken place inside or outside a particular State. The inter-State aspect of the sales or purchases is not within the purview of clause (1) (a) which looks at sales or purchases from the point of view of their location only. Clause (2), on the other hand, takes note of the inter-' State character of sales or purchases which is an entirely different topic. The two provisions do not relate to the same subject and, therefore, it is not possible to hold that one is the enunciation of a general rule and the other the enunciation of a particular or special rule on one and the same subject. The principle of construction relied upon cannot, in our opinion, be called in aid in construing clause (2) and the Explanation of clause (1)(a). If the Explanation cuts down clause (2), it must also, on a parity of reasoning, cut down clause (3) which, as will hereinafter be explained more fully, could not possibly have been intended by the Constitution makers. It must also cut down clause (1) (b) dealing with import and export; but to hold that would run counter to the decision in State of Travancore-Cochin and others v. The Bombay Co. Ltd., [1952] 8 S.C.R. 1112 . In our opinion to use the Explanation to cut down the operation of clause (2) or clause (3) will be to use it for a purpose other than its legitimate and avowed purpose.