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CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 857 of 1964. Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated April 27, 1964, of the Allahabad High Court in Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 2367 of 1962.

Sri Narain Andley and Rameshwar Nath, for the appellant. O. P. Rana, for the respondents.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Shah J. Messrs J. K. Cotton Spinning and Weaving Mills Company Ltd. is a public limited Company having its registered office at Kanpur. The Company manufactures for sale cotton textiles, tiles and other commodities. The Company applied on June 21, 1957, requesting the Sales Tax Officer, Sector II, Kanpur, to register it as a dealer under S. 7(1) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, and prayed that the following goods which it ordinarily purchased in the course of inter-State trade may be specified in the certificate :

Cotton staple fibre, yam, wastes, coal, petrol, machinery, electricals, spares, hardwares, dyes and colours, chemicals, auxiliaries, oils, lubricants, tallows, starches, woollen clothings, gums, clays, salt, beltings, bobbins, shuttles, wooden accessories and other mill stores for manufacturing cloth, yarn, tiles and paints etc."

The Sales Tax Officer granted the certificate as prayed. The certificate of registration was later modified and the following additional categories of goods were specified :

"Drawing material, photographic material, building material including lime and cement (except cement used in manufacture of tiles for re-sale), electricals. iron and steel and coal", and called upon the Company to surrender the certificate of registration within three days for making the proposed amendments.

The Company then applied to the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad for a writ of certiorari calling for the record of the case and quashing the order dated August 9, 1962. At the trial, counsel for the Company did not press the petition in respect of iron, steel and coal. Counsel for the Company submitted that the remaining items were covered by s. 8(3)(b) of the Central Sales Tax Act read with Rule 13 framed under s. 13 of the Act, and on that account the order passed by the Sales Tax Officer was illegal and that in any event the items in question having been included in the certificate of registration after due enquiry as required by the statute, the Sales Tax Officer acted without juris- diction in seeking to make the amendments. The High Court negatived the contention of the Company that the Sales Tax Officer had no jurisdiction to revise the certificate of registration issued after due enquiry, and rejected the petition holding that drawing instruments, photographic materials, colours, chemicals, electricals, machinery and building materials such as cement, lime are not comprehended in the expression "in the manufacture or processing of goods for sale" within the meaning of S. 8 (3 ) (b) read with Rule

13. Against the order dismissing the petition, the Company has appealed to this Court.

Counsel for the Company has very properly not sought to raise the contention that the Sales Tax Officer had no jurisdiction to modify the certificate of registration, merely because the certificate as originally granted was issued after due enquiry. Under S. 7 (4) of the Act a certificate of registration granted under s. 7(1) may be cancelled by the authority granting it, inter alia, for any sufficient reason. If on account of some error, the certificate specifies articles which did not fall within the terms of s. 8 (3) (b) read with Rule 13, the error would manifestly be "sufficient reason" within the meaning of S. 7 (4) a uthorising the cancellation of the certificate qua the items which were erroneously included. In the first instance, it must be pointed out that the High- Court has, in rejecting the petition, dealt with certain matters which were never in issue between the Company and the Sales Tax Officer. By the order of the Sales Tax Officer "machinery", and" colours and chemicals" were not deleted from the certificate, and the exclusion of "building materials, cement and lime" was expressly restricted so that it was not to operate in respect of cement used in manufacture of tiles for sale. The Sales Tax Officer had rejected the claim of the Company only in respect of drawing instruments, photographic materials, building materials including lime and cement (except cement used in manufacture of tiles for re-sale), electricals, iron, steel and coal, and it was not open to the High Court to expand the scope of the petition challenging the correctness of the order of the Sales Tax Officer, and to deal with matters which were never in issue or to decide that other categories of goods which the Sales Tax Officer had not ordered to be deleted did not fall within the terms of s. 8 (3) (b) read with Rule 13. Section 6 of the Act which is the charging section imposes liability upon every dealer with effect from the date as may be specified by the Central Government to pay tax under the Act on all sales effected by him in the course of inter- State trade or commerce during any year on and from the date so notified. Section 7 sets up the machinery for registration of dealers and s. 8 prescribed the rates of tax on- sales in the course of inter-State trade or commerce. Sub-section (1) of s. 8, as it stood at the material time, provided for the rates of tax to be paid on the turnover by a dealer selling in the course of inter-State trade or commerce to registered dealer goods of the description mentioned in sub-s. (3). Sub-section (2) prescribed the rate of tax payable by any dealer in any case not falling within sub-s. (1) in respect of the sale by him of any goods in the course of inter-State trade or commerce. Sub-section (3) enacted "The goods referred to in clause (b) of sub- section (1)-