Report No. 61

3.37. Ben Gorm case.-

In the Ben Gorm Nilgiri Plantation Co. v. Sales Tax Officer, AIR 1964 SC 1752: (1964) 7 SCR 706., on the facts of the case, the sale was regarded as not exempt. The purchasers were local agents of foreign buyers, and the purchase was not "in the course of export". But the judgment of the majority in that case would seem to suggest that if the integrated activity was such that the export was a necessary condition of the contract, and if there was no likelihood of diversion, then, the sale would be in the course of export. The minority view in that case went further. It was prepared to extend that principle to a contract in which export could be taken to the intended, and would not necessarily confine it to cases where there was an express provision for the export of the goods purchased in India.