1968 (7) TMI 66

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..... (2) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and on correct interpretation of entry 44H of Schedule C to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, binstak sold under the bill dated December 30, 1964, by the applicant is iron and steel furniture within the meaning of the aforesaid entry?" The facts leading to this reference are as follows: The applicant before us is the assessee and is a private limited company manufacturing iron and steel products, component parts and accessories. The assessee applied to the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax under section 52 of the Act for determination of the rate of tax payable on sales of shelving rack and binstak and two other articles. In this reference, we are not concerned with the other two .....

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..... ture" in the Act and, therefore, it would be proper to refer to the dictionary. Webster's Dictionary, Second Edition, defines furniture to mean articles of convenience or decoration used to furnish a house. So far as the word "furnish" is concerned, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines the word "furnish", inter alia, as follows: "To fit up (an apartment, a house) with all that is requisite, including movable furniture, which is now the predominant notion." The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary mentions in the meaning of the word "furniture", inter alia, as follows: "Movable articles in a dwelling-house, place of business, or a public building." Therefore, so far as the dictionary meaning is concerned, all articles of convenience .....

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..... of office furniture or a furniture of a place of business and since it is made from steel, it would be steel furniture within entry 44H of Schedule C to the Act. We may mention that the brochure or the pamphlet which has been shown to us describes different articles manufactured by the assessee-company as the distinctive line of "Chandan Steel Furniture"; and it is in this brochure or the pamphlet that both shelving racks and binstaks have been advertised by the assessee-company. As pointed out by Desai, C.J., in Bishambar Dayal Shri Niwas v. Commissioner of Sales Tax[1963] 14 S.T.C. 184. , if the assessee-company stocked its goods, viz., shelving racks and binstaks, as furniture and sold them as furniture, it would be a sale of furniture; .....

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