TMI Blog1982 (4) TMI 266X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a dealer in chemicals, medicines, etc., as also carries on manufacture of medicines. In assessment to sales tax for the assessment year 1971-72 the assessee claimed that its turnover in respect of tartaric acid was liable to tax as medicine under entry No. 5 of the schedule to Notification No. ST-3609/X900(21)-69 dated 1st July, 1969, as subsequently amended with effect from 15th November, 1971, by Notification No. ST-II-332/X-1012-1971 dated 15th November, 1971, in the schedule to which it is at S. No. 55, the rate of tax being 3 paise per rupee and 3 per cent in these two notifications respectively, leviable at single point. The Sales Tax Officer did not accept this contention and treated tartaric acid as chemical within the meaning of e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... chemical and pertaining to chemistry. My attention was also invited to a large number of cases to which I shall refer a little later. In any opinion, the question should be examined from three aspects: Firstly what is the sense in which this commodity is understood by persons dealing with it; secondly what is the main use of this commodity and lastly, the purpose for which it was sold by the assessee. All the three aspects are interconnected and hence are being considered together. Admittedly the assessee carried on business in chemicals, medicines and also in the manufacture of medicines. It had been granted a licence under the relevant provisions of the Drugs Rules, 1945, and that licence is for the manufacture of certain categories of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... well-diluted with water (page 494)." Sodium potassium tartrate has been described as a saline purgative; actions and uses of it are described as magnesium sulphate. It causes a watery evacuation of the bowel without producing irritation (page 461). The uses of magnesium sulphate are described as: "Magnesium sulphate is a saline purgative. Such purgatives are not readily absorbed from the intestine. When taken by mouth in dilute solution they reduce the normal absorption of water from the intestine with the result that the bulky fluid contents distend the bowel, active reflex peristalsis is excited, and evacuation of the contents of the intestine occurs in one to two hours." Saline purgatives are often given in habitual constipation d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ld to be a chemical in Harnarain Purshottam Das v. Commissioner of Sales Tax [1971] 28 STC 77, but there is a notable observation made in that case by Gulati, J. It was the entry "chemicals of all kinds" in Notification No. 905/X dated 31st March, 1956, which was for consideration and the view taken by Pathak, J., was that a chemical may also be used as washing material and the mere circumstance that it is possible to distinguish tinopal as washing material cannot take it out of the category of chemicals of all kinds. Gulati, J., was of the opinion that the fact that whitening brought about by tinopal is a chemical process is of no consequence because that is not the criterion upon which entries in the notifications under the U.P. Sales Tax ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... wder is a medicine and not a toilet article. "Jari booti" was held as medicine because these herbs are sold primarily for their medicinal qualities, in Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Gramodyog Karyalaya [1979] 44 STC 270; 1979 UPTC 884, and similarly in Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Murari Brothers reported at page 1091 in the same volume (1979 UPTC); [1980] 46 STC 88 bhimseni kajal was treated as Ayurvedic medicine and not as a cosmetic or a toilet article. It would thus be seen that in these cases the meaning attributed to the articles concerned was not what is construed in the scientific or technical sense but was as understood in common parlance and by persons dealing with the same and that is the cardinal principle of interpretation in th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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