9911796707
TMI Blog1975 (4) TMI 100X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ----------------------- The judgment of the Court was delivered by KRISHNA IYER, J.-Mr. S.T. Desai, the counsel for the appellants in both the appeals, correctly assured us that the facts are not in dispute, although the legal inference bearing on taxability is very much in controversy. The appellant, who has arrived in this court by certificate under article 133(1)(a) of the Constitution, urges before us that he is not liable to sales tax under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (74 of 1956) (for short, the Act), sought to be levied from him. Admittedly, the appellant is a leading dairy of Benaras and has been sending cream to Calcutta for being converted into butter or ghee. The long journey involved and the considerable qua ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hort question is whether cream sold in soldered containers, in the circumstances set out above, can be described appropriately as "products sold in sealed containers". Fascinated we were by the imaginative and realistic picturisation of the expression "products sold in sealed containers" projected by Shri S.T. Desai, the counsel for the assessee-appellant, but on further reflection, we veered round to the view presented by Shri Sanghi, for the State, that after all law is not always logic and taxation considerations may stem from administrative experience and other factors of life and not artistic visualisation or neat logic and so the literal, though pedestrian, interpretation must prevail. The High Court has negatived the plea of the as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s may be borne out as apt and may even be supplemented by other like instances. A thing is bought loose for a price by a buyer on certain assumptions. But a securely packed or properly sealed commodity sold by a well-known manufacturer is purchased by the consumer based on a sort of flavoured considerations. The assessee's case is that here no cream in sealed containers as a unit with an individuality is sold. On the other hand, cream qua cream is bargained for and despatched. The canister is used because, ex necessitae, large quantities of cream cannot be transported over distances without being put in some container and its leakage and spoilage can be prevented only by soldering or sealing. Items sold in containers are usually so sold fo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sold in milk cans which were not sealed and had been granted tax exemption) made any difference from similar sales in old kerosene tins, the soldering being no sin, which attached tax guilt. Not that we are oblivious to the force of this argument, but we are influenced by the words whose normal meaning should ordinarily guide interpretation. All that the notification states is that products sold in sealed containers must sail out of the harbour of exemption. The simple question is this; Was the sale, of cream. Yes. Was it, when sold, packaged in containers which were sealed. Yes. On these two affirmative answers the exclusion from the exemption operates. Such is the contention put forward on behalf of the taxing authority by Shri Sanghi, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to put the stuff sold or to be sold in sealed containers; it is only a large scale manufacturer who manufactures and exports the confectionery, who would need selling the same in a container. In our opinion, therefore, it is only that class of dealers carrying on the business of sale of confectionery in sealed containers, as explained above, who were not intended to be exempted from the liability to pay sales tax on their turnover." On appeal, this court, after noticing the plausibility of the opposite point of view and guessing the possible administrative and other reasons for the exclusion from exemption, held: "Be that as it may, in the context it is difficult to give to the expression 'sealed container' a meaning different from the o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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