TMI Blog1975 (3) TMI 108X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uring brasswares from brass melted and prepared in the furnace known as gulli bhatties, para bhatties and darja bhatties would be payable subject to the conditions mentioned therein. The Sales Tax Officer, Mirzapur, rejected the applications for grant of exemption to the petitioners under the aforesaid notification and passed the provisional assessment orders being annexures XX to XXII, XXIV, XXVI, XXVIII and XXX and also passed assessment orders (annexures XXXVIII, XXXIX and XL to the writ petition), and issued notices of demand (annexures XXIII, XXV, XXVII, XXIX and XXXI). The petitioners have prayed for the quashing of the said assessment orders as well as the notices of demand. They have also prayed for the suitable writ, order or direc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... emphasised in the counteraffidavit that the petitioners were dealers of wares of gilet and German silver and were not dealers of brasswares. According to the counter-version, brass is different from gilet or German silver. It is well-known as such in the trading community. The petitioners being the dealers in gilet and German silver wares were not entitled to the exemption under the aforesaid notification dated 13th September, 1971. The orders passed, refusing to grant the certificates under the said notification, were correctly passed. The plea of the respondents is that the petitioners were liable to tax on the wares other than brass, which they were selling during the course of their business. The only controversy, therefore, between t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . Consequently, "betel leaves" are not vegetables and would not be exempted from sales tax under item No. 6 of Schedule II of the C.P. and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947. Reliance has also been placed on the case in Commissioner, Sales Tax, U.P. v. Prayag Chemical Works[1970] 25 S.T.C. 85., where a Full Bench of this Court while explaining away the entry of the word "chemicals" in the notification, which was involved in that case, held that while interpreting items in statutes like the Sales Tax Act, resort should be had not to the scientific or the technical meaning of such terms but to their popular meaning or the meaning attached to them by those dealing in them, that is to say, to their commercial sense. The Full Bench placed reliance on t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ara bhatties and darja bhatties and exemption from tax is contemplated provided the fee Is paid at the rate given in the schedule. The manufacturers of the brasswares or karkhanedars in common parlance understand the metal as "pital". For the purposes of giving better colour or shade, the other added metals do not change the metal from "pital". Even after the nickel or tin is added to, it is known as "pital". The words "gilet" and "German silver", commercially as well as in the popular sense, are understood as brass. For illustration reliance has been placed on Notification No. ST-9377/X-906(AB-4) 1971 issued in exercise of the powers under sub-section (2) of section 3-A of the U.P. Sales Tax Act read with section 21 of the General Clauses ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s include brass of yellow colour, white colour also known as gilet or German silver. The manufacturer, the brokers, the commission agents and the purchasers dealing in brasswares, all consider and know all these different classes of wares as brasswares. Paragraph 8 of the writ petition is based on the personal knowledge of the deponent swearing affidavit in support thereof. In reply to paragraph 8 of the affidavit Shri Ashwani Kumar, who has filed the counter-affidavit on behalf of the respondents has asserted that the wares of brass and that of "gilet" and "German silver" are commercially different commodities and they are treated as such by the trading community. This factual aspect of the matter, as is apparent from the swearing clause, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... small proportions. Thus interpreting the word "brasswares" as used in the notification aforesaid dated 13th September, 1971, in our opinion, gilet and German silver, kansa and phoolwares are included and that appears to be the intention of the notification. The word has not been used by the legislature; it has been used in the notification published under section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, by the Government and while using the word in the notification the Government must be deemed to be aware of all those wares that are included and are sold as brasswares under that heading. The use of the words "gulli bhatties", "para bhatties" and "darja bhatties" also go to show that the word "brasswares" used in the notification has been used in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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