TMI Blog1970 (6) TMI 44X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cence to be obtained by persons concerned with blasting or mining operations. It contains chemical composition inside a metallic tube, whether aluminium or copper, which is closed at one end. In this tube are compressed two charges of initiating explosives successively. One is base charge and the other is priming charge. The chemical mixture in each of them is somewhat different from the other. The tube with explosives thus compressed thereinto forms a "detonator". In order that this detonator may function, it is necessary that the explosive chemicals therein should be ignited. This ignition is effected in more than one way. One of the methods of igniting it is to provide a train of black powder called "safety fuse" which would carry a flam ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ses the explosion that is utilized in commercial blasting practices. That is how the nature and the kind of detonator manufactured by the assessee has been described by Shri V. Y. Tambe, an expert whose opinion forms part of the record of this case. Practically, there is no difference between ordinary and electric detonators so far as detonator or explosive portion is concerned. The combination of chemicals compressed in the metallic casting in both the kinds of detonators is essentially the same. If at all there is any difference between the two kinds of detonators, it is in the method of setting off the detonators. While for ignition of the priming charge flame is carried through the safety fuse in the ordinary detonators, in the case of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ods are to be taken as a whole. For this purpose their component parts cannot be taken separately. To put it differently, the article sold is to be taken as a unit and cannot be split up and considered. On this basis, which has also been clearly stated in the case relied on, the Tribunal seems to have held that inasmuch as the electric energy is used only for the limited purpose of ignition, the detonator which is primarily and essentially an explosive accessory depending for its potency and power on the chemical combination, cannot be classified as electrical goods or appliances. In our judgment, the approach of the Tribunal to the problem is correct. The appellate authority was no doubt impressed greatly by the fact that the electrical de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Ravi Auto Stores[1968] 22 S.T.C. 172. It was laid down therein as follows: "Intrinsically, the goods in question must be electrical goods and secondly their use cannot be had without electrical energy. Merely because an article cannot be used without electricity, it may not be decisive. It is necessary that, apart from that fact, the article, by its very nature, answers the description of 'electrical goods'." We find ourselves in respectful agreement with this proposition. The expression "electrical goods", of course, as already stated, is not defined in the Act or the Rules. In the absence of any specific meaning given to it in the Act we have to necessarily construe it and understand the same in the sense it is used in common parlanc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . A sales tax statute being one levying a tax on goods, must, in the absence of a technical term or a term of science or art, be presumed to have used an ordinary term as coal according to the meaning ascribed to it in common parlance." At another place, their Lordships observed thus: "While interpreting items in statutes like the Sales Tax Acts, resort should be had not to the scientific or the technical meaning of such terms but to their popular meaning or the meaning attached to them by those dealing in them, that is to say, to their commercial sense." This court had occasion to deal with a like question in The State of Andhra Pradesh v. Satyanarayana Kaithan (P.) Ltd.[1967] 20 S.T.C. 409., where the question arose whether "manganese" ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... an stop its detonation. That is because the energy that is supplied to the detonator is wholly related to the energy and the gas released by the chemical reaction taking place in the fuse head composition and the reaction in the priming charge and the base charge. Thus it may be noted that whereas the amount of work turned out by electrical apparatus is directly proportionate to the amount of electric energy supplied to it, in the electric detonator the energy supplied is in no way related to the electric energy but only depends upon the energy available in the chemical reaction taking place within the various explosive chemicals utilised in the detonator tube. As soon as the fuse is ignited, the blast would take place automatically and the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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