TMI Blog1998 (10) TMI 452X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ontemplated by the notification and the Joint Director of Industries, the Tribunal and the High Court were wrong in taking a contrary view. - Civil Appeal No. 9282 of 1995, & 1692 of 1997, - - - Dated:- 6-10-1998 - MUKHERJEE M.K., BHARUCHA S.P. AND NANAVATI G.T. JJ. Dhruv Aggarwal, Advocate, for the appellant in C.A. No. 9282 of 1995. Pramod Dayal, Advocate, for the appellant in C.A. No. 1692 of 1997. A.K. Goel, Additional Advocate-General, for the State of U.P. (kavin Gulati and Pradeep Misra, Advocates, with him), for the respondent. -------------------------------------------------- The judgment of the Court was delivered by G.T. Nanavati, J. -The question that arises for consideration in these two appeals is whether toffee is sweetmeat or a commodity of a like nature and therefore the appellant s industrial units making toffees, though newly set-up, were not entitled to the benefit of exemption from payment of sales tax under notification dated July 27, 1991, issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh, in exercise of its powers under section 4-A of the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax Act, 1948 (for short, the Act ). 2.. With a view to step up econo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erned an eligibility certificate granted in this behalf by the General Manager, District Industries Centre, Area Development Officer (Industry) of the concerned Industrial Development Authority, Additional or Joint Director of Industries of the range or Additional or Joint Director, Industries of the concerned Industrial Development Authority, as the case may be. 3 to 6...................... Annexure I ................... Annexure II List of industries not entitled to the facility of exemption from or reduction in rate of tax ...................... 18. Units making sweetmeat, namkin, reori, gazak and commodities of like nature and restaurants. ................ 3. M/s. Pappu Sweets and Biscuits, appellant in C.A. No. 9282 of 1995, established a new industrial unit for manufacturing toffees in Bareilly district, by investing substantial amount of capital. It commenced production within the specified period and thereafter applied to the Joint Director of Industries, Bareilly, for an eligibility certificate. The Joint Director rejected the application on the ground that toffee is sweetmeat and, therefore, the appellant s new industrial unit being a unit of th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... crystallised fruit . Toffee according to the same dictionary, means candy of brittle but tender texture made by boiling sugar and butter together . Thus, a toffee is an article which is rich in sugar and is a sweetmeat. Chambers Dictionary defines toffee as a hard baked sweetmeat made of sugar and butter. In the Oxford Dictionary toffee is stated to mean all kinds of sweet made from sugar, butter, etc. . A person manufacturing sweetmeat including things like toffee is called a confectioner. The word confect means to put together from varied material . The term confection means the act or processing of confecting as a fancy dish or sweetmeat or fruit or nut preserved or even a medical preparation made with sugar syrup or honey . Confectionery then means sweet edibles or the confectioner s art or business. In consolidated Glossary of Technical Terms, Central Hindi Directorate, Ministry of Education, Government of India (1962 Edition), confectionery is defined as misthan, mithai. In the English-Hindi Dictionary of Dr. Komil Bulkey, the meaning of the word confectionery is given as misthan, mithai and sweetmeat has been described to mean as murabba, misthan, mit ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n things like reori, gazak, petha which have a sufficiently longer shelf-life should be denied the same benefit. It would be anomalous that a person who sets up an unit to manufacture reori, gazak, petha, etc., should be denied the exemption while another dealer manufacturing sweets of foreign origin like toffee should be granted exemption by excluding the commodity from the scope of entry No. 18 in an artificial or discriminatory manner. ...................... It may be mentioned that several manufacturers of toffees and things like that sell their products describing them as sweets. We can see such things being sold as Parry sweets , Daurala sweets or Cola sweets at any confectioner s shop. 6.. Learned counsel for the appellants challenged the judgment of the High Court on the ground that it has not correctly construed entry No. 18. They also submitted that the High Court has not correctly interpreted the word sweetmeat as used therein and that instead of being influenced by the dictionary meanings of the words sweetmeat and toffee it should have decided the question whether toffee is sweetmeat by considering how these commodities are understood by the peo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nstrued rather strictly. Even though the word used in exclusionary part of an exemption notification has a wide dictionary meaning or connotation, only that meaning should be given to it which would achieve rather than frustrate the object of granting exemption and which does not lead to uncertainty or unintended results. 10.. A correct reading of the notification further discloses that the words commodities of like nature in entry 18 were meant to include commodities other than those specifically mentioned. What they indicate is that other commodities of like nature also were not to get benefit of the exemption. To that extent they did widen the scope of the entry but they cannot be construed to have the effect of enlarging the meaning of the word sweetmeat . As that was not the purpose of including those words in the entry, the High Court was not justified in holding that they gave an unlimited and unrestricted meaning to the word mithai or sweetmeat . 11.. The High Court has also not correctly applied the popular parlance test. As can be seen from the observations made by it that there is no doubt that a toffee is a sweetmeat, as understood by the people where toffee ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d sweetmeat the word mithai is used. The word mithai has a definite connotation and it can be said with reasonable amount of certainty that people in this country do not consider toffee as mithai . The High Court committed a grave error in holding that as some manufacturers of toffees sell their products by describing them as sweets it can be said that in commercial circles toffee is known as sweetmeat. 12.. The learned counsel for the appellant also drew our attention to a similar exemption notification for the subsequent period issued by the State of U.P. wherein the relevant item is worded thus: Units making sweetmeats, namkin, reori, gazak (but excluding such confectionery manufacturing units as are registered under the Factories Act, 1948) and restaurants . The learned counsel submitted that subsequent legislation can be looked at in order to see what is the proper interpretation to be put upon the earlier legislation when the earlier legislation is found to be obscure or ambiguous or capable of more than one interpretation. In support of his contention, he relied upon the decisions of this Court in State of Bihar v. S.K. Roy [1966] Supp. SCR 259 and Jogendra Nath Nask ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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