REPORTABLE

  IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO.  460   OF 2009 (Arising out of SLP(C) No. 2215  of 2009)

(CC No. 476)

State of Kerala & Ors. ...Appellant(s)

Versus

Prabhavathy Thankamma & Ors. ...Respondent(s)

O R D E R

Dr. ARIJIT PASAYAT,J.

 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner.

 Delay condoned.

 Leave granted.

In view of the decision of the Constitution Bench of this Court in Sunrise

Associates vs. Govt. of NCT of Delhi & 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 Court in the said case inter alia held as follows:

“We have noted earlier that all the statutory definitions of the

word `goods' in the State Sales Tax Laws have uniformly excluded, inter

alia,

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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.

xxxxxx xxxxxx 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.Anraj, as we have

seen, held that a lottery ticket is a slip of paper of memoranda evidencing

the transfer of certain rights.  We agree.

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx

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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 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.”

                        ................  .J.               (Dr. ARIJIT PASAYAT)

                  ...................J.                                         (ASOK KUMAR GANGULY) New Delhi, January 23, 2009.