TMI Blog1977 (3) TMI 127X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... P.N. AND MURTAZA FAZAL ALI S. JJ. Purushottam Chatterjee, Senior Advocate, (Rathin Das, Advocate, with him), for the respondents. Lal Narain Sinha, Solicitor-General (G.S. Chatterjee, Advocate, with him), for the appellants. . -------------------------------------------------- The judgment of the Court was delivered by BHAGWATI, J. -The short question which arises for determination in these appeals is whether green ginger falls within the category of goods described as vegetables, green or dried, commonly known as 'sabji, tarkari or sak' in item 6 of Schedule I to the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941. If it is covered by this description, it would be exempt from sales tax imposed under the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ld be liable to bear tax when sold in sealed containers . It was common ground in the present case that green ginger was not sold by the assessee in sealed containers and the only question which, therefore, requires to be considered is whether green ginger can be regarded as vegetable commonly known as sabji, tarkari or sak . Now, the word vegetable is not defined in the Act but it is well-settled as a result of several decisions of this Court of which we may mention only two, namely, Ramavatar Budhaiprasad v. Assistant Sales Tax Officer, Akola [1961] 12 S.T.C. 286 (S.C.); A.I.R. 1961 S.C. 1325., and Motipur Zamindary Co. Ltd. v. State of Bihar [1962] 13 S.T.C. 1 (S.C.); A.I.R. 1962 S.C. 660., that this word, being a word of every da ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the word vegetable . It is interesting to note that the same principle of construction in relation to words used in a taxing statute has also been adopted in English, Canadian and American courts. Pollock, B., pointed out in Grenfell v. Inland Revenue Commissioners [1876] 1 Ex. D. 242 at 248., that if a statute contains language which is capable of being construed in a popular sense such 'a statute is not to be construed according to the strict or technical meaning of the language contained in it, but is to be construed in its popular sense, meaning of course, by the words popular sense , that sense which people conversant with the subject-matter with which the statute is dealing would attribute to it' . So also the Supreme ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d both the vegetable vendor who every day deals in vegetables and the housewife who daily goes to the market to purchase vegetables would unhesitatingly regard green ginger as vegetable. The assessee in fact placed evidence before the sales tax authorities showing that the railway authorities also treated green ginger as vegetable for the purpose of railway tariff and charged for the carriage of green ginger at the reduced rate applicable to vegetables and even the Corporation of Calcutta included green ginger in the category of vegetables in the market bulletin published by it fortnightly showing the rates in the municipal market. There can, therefore, be little doubt that green ginger is generally regarded as included within the meaning o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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