TMI Blog1968 (8) TMI 167X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ai, Senior Advocate (Anoop Singh, Advocate, with him), for the appellant. I.N. Shroff, Advocate, for the respondent. -------------------------------------------------- The judgment of the Court was delivered by GROVER, J.- This is an appeal by special leave against the judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court answering the following question, which was referred by the Commissioner of Sales Tax, under section 44 of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1958 (2 of 1959), hereinafter called the Act, in the negative: "Whether the chaff-cutter (kutti-ki-machine) comes under item (12) 'mowers' of Notification No. 736-3694-V-SR dated April 1, 1959, issued by the State Government as laid down in item 1 of Schedule I a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of goods specified in Schedule I. Item No. 1 of that Schedule is to the following effect: "Agricultural implements worked or operated exclusively by human or animal agency specified by the State Government by notification in the Official Gazette." On April 1, 1959, the Government issued a notification specifying numerous articles as agricultural implements for the purpose of entry No. 1 of Schedule. Item No. (12) occurring in the notification was mowers. Therefore the next question which was to be decided was whether kutti-ki-machine fell within the meaning of that expression and the High Court after referring to the dictionary meaning and discussing the use of the word "mow" in English language came to the conclusion that the word "mow ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nglish-Hindi Dictionary of Governmental and Educational Words and Phrases by Prof. Dr. Raghu Vira, the meaning of "mower" is given as lavithra Transliterated from Hindi., and the meaning of "mowing" is given as krunthan, katayee Transliterated from Hindi. In Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary the mean of the word "mow" is stated to be "to cut down, or cut the grass upon, with a scythe or a grass-cutting machine..." It is contended that the meaning of the word "mower" has to be taken in the wider and general sense of a cutting machine which is used primarily for cutting grass and fodder. The emphasis, it is submitted, is on cutting and not on anything else. The word "mow" in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is stated to mean, "to c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... removing something embedded or attached to another thing. This is what the High Court proceeded to say: "When, therefore, stalks and stems, after they are detached from earth, are cut into small pieces, whether by a knife or a scythe or a machine, there is chopping of the stalks and stems and not any mowing process. Consequently, the term 'mower', as used in item No. (12) of the notification dated the 1st April, 1959, must be understood as meaning a machine for cutting down stalks, stems, hay, grass etc. standing on the earth." Kutti-ki-machine or the chaff-cutter is used only after the removal of stems, hay, grass etc. from the earth. In our opinion the decision of the High Court is correct and must be upheld. The appeal fails but in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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