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TMI Blog1973 (6) TMI 48X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ax accordingly under entry 6, Part II, of Schedule B to the aforesaid Act. The opponent-mill, therefore, took the matter in appeal before the Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax. The contention before the Commissioner was that the bhinda seeds purchased by the opponent-mill were vegetable seeds covered by entry 22 of Schedule A to the aforesaid Act and as such not liable to tax. This contention did not find favour with the Assistant Commissioner, who confirmed the order of the Sales Tax Officer and held that bhinda seeds were liable to tax under entry 6, Part II, of Schedule B to the Act. The opponent-mill, therefore, went in second appeal before the Tribunal. Both the contentions, namely, that the bhinda seeds were vegetable seeds within entry 22 of Schedule A and, secondly, they could not be considered to be oil-seeds liable to tax under entry 6, Part II, of Schedule B were raised. The Tribunal after referring to the scheme of Schedule A and the relevant entries thereto, namely, entries 22, 23, 25 and 26, held that the expression "vegetable seeds" in entry 22 of Schedule A meant such vegetable seeds which are capable of being sown and actually required for use for such purposes. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... has by using the words "that is to say" in entry No. 6, intended to limit the liability of tax to the specified counts of oil-seeds and, therefore, the Tribunal was correct when it applied the common parlance test. In Commissioner of Sales Tax, Madhya Pradesh, Indore v. M/s. Jaswant Singh Charan Singh[1967] 19 S.T.C. 469 (S.C.); A.I.R. 1967 S.C. 1454., the Supreme Court was concerned with the question whether on the interpretation of entry 1 of Part III of Schedule II to the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1958, that entry would cover within the term "coal" the commodity of charcoal. The court, after referring to the different decisions as to how the entry in the fiscal statute be interpreted, laid down as under: "The result emerging from these decisions is that while construing the word 'coal' in entry 1 of Part III of Schedule II, the test that would be applied is what would be the meaning which persons dealing with coal and consumers purchasing it as fuel would give to that word. A sales tax statute, being one levying a tax on goods, must, in the absence of a technical term or a term of science or art, be presumed to have used an ordinary term as coal according to the m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ut in shell and kernel" which are prescribed under entry 13A in Schedule A as tax-free. In our opinion, the question is, then, what is the meaning to be ascribed to the words "that is to say". Are these words merely illustrating the different types of oil-seeds as generally described in the opening part of the entry, or are they words restricting the general nature of goods, namely, oil-seeds? The expression "that is to say" has been the subject-matter of judicial interpretation. In Stroud's judicial Dictionary, 3rd Edition, at page 3007, under the caption "that is to say", it is observed as under: "THAT IS TO SAY: (1) 'That is to say' is the commencement of an ancillary clause which explains the meaning of the principal clause. It has the following properties: (i) it must not be contrary to the principal clause; (ii) it must neither increase nor diminish it; (iii) but where the principal clause is general in terms it may restrict it." The contention on behalf of the revenue that entry No. 6 should be construed as defining the oil-seeds is, in our opinion, too tall a submission, which cannot be sustained. There are good reasons for it, apart from the meaning to be ascribed to the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Orissa v. Dinabandhu Sahu and Sons[1969] 24 S.T.C. 233., Andhra Pradesh in its later ruling in Shantilal & Co. and Another v. The State of Andhra Pradesh[1972] 30 S.T.C. 382. and Madhya Pradesh in Commissioner of Sales Tax, Madhya Pradesh v. Hirji Nainsee and Co.[1972] 29 S.T.C. 365. It is not necessary for our purpose to refer to these different decisions in detail. However, we refer to the two decisions, from amongst those decisions, which have been pressed into service by the learned Government Pleader on behalf of the revenue. In State of Orissa v. Dinabandhu Sahu and Sons[1969] 24 S.T.C. 233., the Orissa High Court has construed this entry as defining the goods and, therefore, thought it fit to prefer the defined meaning to the common parlance test. As stated by us above, we are not inclined to construe this entry as defining the term "oil-seeds". It should be noted that the entry with which the Orissa High Court was concerned was the entry under section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, where the entry is not in the same terms as we have got in entry 6 of Part II of Schedule B to the Act. The entry under section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, does not exclude, as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al statute, which in the absence of a technical meaning should be strictly construed and we are, therefore, of the opinion that the Tribunal was right when it applied the common parlance test in order to find out, whether bhinda seeds are in the first instance oilseeds under entry 6 and, if so, whether they are liable to be taxed as such in the said entry. In our opinion, the determination of the question, whether bhinda seeds are oil-seeds or not, cannot be arrived at by reference to their use or by the mere fact that the seeds in question would yield oil. The term "oil-seeds" is a term of every day use and it should be construed in its popular sense. In other words, it should be construed in that sense which people conversant with the subjectmatter with which the statute is dealing would attribute to it. It should be construed as understood in the common language. The test cannot be, whether oil is extracted from the seeds in question but whether it is, in common parlance, an article known as oil-seeds for extraction of oil. Judging by this test, the Tribunal was right in holding that it was difficult for the Tribunal to uphold the contention of the revenue that bhinda seeds coul ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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