COMMR. OF S.T. vs SAI PUBLICATION FUND — C.A. No. 9445/1996

Summary: The Supreme Court held that Sai Publication Fund, a trust established to spread Saibaba's message, is not a "dealer" liable to sales tax under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, despite publishing and selling religious books and literature. The Court reasoned that the trust's primary and dominant activity is spreading a religious message, not conducting business; publication and sale of materials are merely incidental/ancillary to this main objective. Even though the statutory definition of "business" excludes profit motive, the tax is leviable only on persons who "carry on business," and the trust's activities do not constitute business in the ordinary sense given their religious purpose and cost-price distribution model. This case analysis is maintained by casestatus.in based on publicly available court records.