TMI Blog1949 (1) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... "Whether green betel leaves called pan are taxable articles within the meaning of Section 6 of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1944, read with Notification No. 7567 F, dated the 8th July, 1944, issued by the Govern- ment of Bihar in the Finance Department." The assessees, who are dealers in betel leaves (called pan) within the jurisdiction of the Sales Tax Officer, Ranchi, were detected by some Inspector of the Commercial Taxes Department to have been importing betel leaves from outside Bihar; and from the inquiries made in the Railway Parcel Offices, supported by local inquiries, it was revealed that the assessees had been carrying on business for a long time and that the annual gross turnover of each of them exceeded Rs. 5,000 during the finan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... betel leaves were intend- ed, or can be reasonably held to be exempted from taxation. The ordinary dictionary meaning of a vegetable is "a plant cultivated for food". The Commissioner was, therefore, not prepared to hold that the betel leaves constituted an article of food in the sense in which the word "food" is normally used. He, therefore, dismissed the petition by an order dated the 5th September, 1945, a copy of which is enclosed (Exhibit O). Against the aforesaid order of the Commissioner the assessee then moved the Board of Revenue in revision on the 22nd September, 1945, on the grounds stated in the petition (No. 261 of 1945), a copy of which is enclosed (Exhibit P). But for the reasons set forth in its resolution, dated the 29th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t betel leaves are green vegetables and are thereby exempted from tax under Bihar Government Notification No. 7567F of July 8, 1944. The Sales Tax Officer did not accept this contention; whereupon the petitioners moved the Commissioner in a petition purporting to be under Section 18(d) of the Bihar Sales Tax Act; and the learned Com- missioner heard the petitioners, and the Sales Tax Officer, and held that although the question raised was not entirely free from doubt, he could find nothing in the Government Notification of July 8, 1944, to justify the conclusion that betel leaves were intended, or could reasonably be held, to be exempted from taxation, as the ordinary dictionary meaning of vegetable is a "plant cultivated for food", and he ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... en or dried other than medicinal preparations", comes in the middle of a number of items, referring to food used for human consumption. Item No. 1 is "cereals and pulses", No. 2 "bread", and No. 3 "flour", No. 4 "meat", No. 5 "fish", No. 6 vegetables as noted above, No. 7 "cooked food, eaten at the hotel etc.", No. 8 "Gur, sugar and molasses", No. 9 "salt". The obvious conclusion is that in framing the notifica- tion, the aim was to exclude from taxation the normal items of human diet. In the second place, the wording of a notification should be inter- preted in a common-sense manner. Now, when people speak of green vegetables, they normally mean such things as cabbages, cauliflowers, beans, peas, brinjals and salad vegetables. They certa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... m to file necessary returns for the quarter ending the 31st of December, 1944. Instead of filing returns, the assessees filed objection petitions on the ground that betel leaves come within the category of green vegetables, and as such were exempted from the levy of sales tax by Notification No. 7567F, dated the 8th of July, 1944, issued by the Government under Section 6 of the Act. Subsequently they filed before the Commissioner of Sales Tax, Chota Nagpur Division, a joint petition for determination of the question whether any tax was payable in respect of the sale of betel leaves. The Commissioner took the view that the notification in ques- tion was not intended to exclude betel leaves from taxation, and that the word "vegetables" in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... luding all forms of rice, gram, peas, moong, arhar, masur, khesari, millet, bajra, and jowar, wheat, oats, barley, maize, powdered or broken pulses, sago, besan and sattu, sold loose or in unsealed card-board or paper containers." Item 3 is "flour including atta, maida, suji, and bran". Item 8 is "gur, sugar and molasses". If the word "vegetables" had been used in a compre- hensive sense to include all plants and their products, then items 1 and 8 would not have been separately specified. There can, therefore, in my opinion, be no doubt that Government by "vegetables" meant plants cultivated for food. In this limited sense, will pan be included? Pan is certainly not a food-stuff. It is a masticatory (see the article on "betel" in the Ency ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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