1966 (4) TMI 64

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..... he word "vegetable" in this item qualifies only the word "seeds" or it qualifies the word "plants" as well. Indeed, the assessee had in his application for reference formulated the question on these lines. The assessee in the present case carried on the business of growing and selling flower and other plants and it is contended on his behalf by Shri Vohra that the word "plants" in the item in question is intended to be used as an independent category of exempted goods and it is not confined to vegetable plants only. It may be observed here that the assessee was assessed to sales tax on the sale of plants other than vegetable plants. In fairness to the learned counsel, I must state that he has not attempted to argue that the expression "vege .....

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..... econd Schedule also, I do not think the Legislature intended to use the word "plants" in the comprehensive sense suggested by Shri Vohra. Such a construction, in my opinion, does not conform to the scheme in which various items have been categorised as exempted goods in this Schedule. The expressions "other than medicinal preparations" and "except when sold in sealed containers" used after the word "plants" in the item in question would also seem to me to indicate the intention of the law-maker to govern not only the word "plants" but also the preceding categories of goods, namely, "vegetables, green or dried and vegetable seeds", and if that be the true legislative scheme, it is difficult to impute to the Legislature an intention to use th .....

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..... rse, the charging section must be quite clear and unambiguous because tax can only be imposed by authority of law and such law must accordingly be reasonably clear in its mandate. At the same time, when an assessee, chooses to bring his case within an exemption from the imposition, it is for him to bring his case quite clearly within the language of the exemption. Broadly speaking, grants of tax exemption also attract a construction which is inspired by the rule that the burdens of taxation should be distributed equally and fairly among the members of society. From whichever point of view the matter is considered, it appears that the word "vegetable" is intended to qualify the word "plants" as well. For the foregoing reasons, our answer to .....

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