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2013 (11) TMI 655 - HC - Indian LawsClassification of industry - Whether petitioner’s industry which makes products from desiccated or dry/brown coconuts is covered under the entry “Fruit and Vegetable Preservation Industry” as found in Schedule-I of the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 - Held that:- fresh fruits and vegetables being household articles of everyday use for the table, these will have to be construed in the popular sense, meaning the sense in which every householder will understand them - ripend coconut is neither a fresh fruit nor vegetable. The watery coconut is no doubt a ripend coconut used for several purposes like offerings to a deity in a Hindu temple being broken or used on auspicious occasions or used in preparation of the daily table food or in confectionary like biscuits or in the extraction of oil when it is fresh or dried kernel. When a person in the commercial market goes and asks for coconut no one will consider brown coconut to be vegetable or fresh fruit, much less a green fruit. No householder would purchase it as a fruit - dry brown coconut cannot be said to be a fruit and that meaning has to be taken for interpretation of the relevant entry of the EPF Act. The issue in this case is not free from difficulties because coconut is a natural product which is sold in different forms and for different purposes, as stated above, however in my opinion, a dry brown coconut definitely is not a fruit as it is not so understood in common parlance and which meaning has to also apply for interpretation of the relevant entry in the EPF Act - Decided in favour of assessee.
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