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[2009] 1 S.C.R. 641
ST ATE OF KERALA & ORS.
V.
PRABHAVATHY THANKAMMA & ORS.
(Civil Appeal No.460 of 2009)
JANUARY 23, 2009
[DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT AND ASOK KUMAR
GANGUL Y, JJ.]
SALES TAX LAWS:
"Goods" - Purchaser's right on purchasing a lottery ticket
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Held: Is an actionable claim and therefore would be
excluded from the definition of "goods" - Actionable claim.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No.460
of 2009.
From the Judgment and Order dated 20.7.2007 of the High
Court of Kerala at Ernakulam in W.A. No. 1786 of 2007.
R. Salish for the Appellants.
The following Order of the Court was delivered
ORDER
A
B
c
D
E
DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J. 1. Heard learned counsel for the
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petitioner.
2. Delay condoned.
3. Leave granted.
4. In view of the decision of the Constitution Bench of this
Court in Sunrise Associates vs. Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Ors
reported in 2006 (5) SCC 603, we find no merit in this appeal
which is accordingly dismissed. It need to be stated that this
641
G
H
642
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2009] 1 S.C.R.
A Court in the said case inter alia held as follows:
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c
D
E
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"We have noted earlier that all the statutory
definitions of the word , goods' in the State Sales Tax Laws
have uniformly excluded, inter alia, actionable claims from
the definition for the purpose of the Act. Were actionable
claims etc., not otherwise includible in the definition of
'goods' there was no need for excluding them. In other
words, actionable claims are , goods' but not for the
purpose of the Sales Tax Acts and but for this statutory
exclusion, an actionable claim would be 'goods' or the
subject matter of ownership. Consequently, an actionable
claim is movable property and 'goods' in the wider sense
of the term but a sale of an actionable claim would not be
subject to the sales tax law.
x:xxxxx
x:xxxxx
)()()()()(
A lottery ticket has no value in itself. It is a mere piece
of paper. Its value lies in the fact that it represents a chance
or a right to a conditional benefit of winning a prize of a
greater value than the consideration paid for the transfer
of that chance. It is nothing more than a token or evidence
of this right. The Court in H. An raj, as we have seen, held
that a lottery ticket is a slip of paper of memoranda
evidencing the transfer of certain rights. We agree.
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xxxxxxx
x:xxxxx
5. The question is, what is this right which the ticket
represents? There can be no doubt that on purchasing a lottery
ticket, the purchaser would have a claim to a conditional
G interest in the prize money which is not in the purchaser's
possession. The right would fall squarely within the definition
of an actionable claim and would therefore be excluded from
the definition of 'goods' under the Sale of Goods Act and the
Sales tax statutes."
H G.N.
Appeal dismissed.
Lex