TMI Blog1986 (3) TMI 316X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he years 1973-74 to 1975-76 the same argument was raised as by then the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 (for short "the Haryana Act"), had become applicable and the exemption was sought under entry No. 8 of Schedule B of that Act. The case for the assessment year 1969-70 came up first before the Assessing Authority and he rejected the contention of the assessee and subjected all items to tax vide order dated 30th March, 1976. For the year 1969-70 the matter was taken up in appeal. Before the appellate authority, the assessee relied upon decision of the Allahabad High Court in Commissioner of Sales Tax, U.P., Lucknow v. Indo Arts [1969] 24 STC 342, and a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Govindaswamy Binding Works v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1972] 29 STC 219, for the proposition that the items like brochures, booklets, magazines and folders and all kinds of books including account books are covered by the term "books". The appellate authority accepted the contention and by order dated 22nd December, 1976, held that the items in question are covered by the term "books" in entry 22 of Schedule B of the Punjab Act, 1948 and were exempt from tax. For the subsequent si ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eration from time to time. For these subsequent years, the assessee filed Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 498 of 1983, 3483 and 3484 of 1984 directly in this Court under article 226 of the Constitution of India against the order of the Assessing Authority, instead of going through the ordeal of appeals to the various authorities and then reference to this Court as the point was already under consideration of this Court in the aforesaid seven references. Since common questions arise, the seven references and the three writ petitions are being disposed of by this common judgment, as also agreed to by the counsel for the parties. Before we proceed to discuss the matter, it deserves mentioning that the learned counsel appearing for the assessee has stated at the Bar that he is not disputing the decision of the Sales Tax Tribunal with regard to folders. He also stated at the Bar that UNESCO couriers were printed in the first year of its inception, and were not printed during the assessment years in dispute nor it has the intention to print them in near future, and, therefore, the decision of the Sales Tax Tribunal regarding UNESCO courier is also not being challenged. In view of the above, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd it was held therein that the expression "all books" would include any kind of books, including account books, notebooks, loose sheets of paper fastened together and they need not be literary works or books. Even the expression "book" itself was held to be comprehensive enough to take in all kinds of books and the word "all" was considered to make it abundantly manifest and plain that the notification was issued to cover all cases of sales of books and is not restricted in its application to books of literary material or other kinds of reading material. During discussion, it was noticed that earlier to the item "all books and periodicals" under the prior notification, exemption was allowed only to certain kinds or categories of books from payment of sales tax. In view of the new enlarged entry it was held that exemption was allowed to account books, note-books, etc., also. In Industrial and Commercial Service's case [1963] 14 STC 299 (All.), the item "book" under the U.P. Sales Tax Act came up for consideration, and in that case sale of diaries (containing mostly of blank pages, a sloka from Bhagwat Gita at the top of each page and a few pages of general information in the begi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to ordinary parlance and must be given a meaning which people conversant with that commodity would ascribe to it." It was also observed that the word should be understood in the popular sense or should be given its plain ordinary meaning. In Ramavatar Budhaiprasad's case [1961] 12 STC 286 (SC), J.L. Kapur, J., speaking for the Constitution Bench observed that the word "vegetables" must be construed not in any technical sense nor from the botanical point of view but as understood in common parlance and should be construed in its popular sense meaning "that sense which people conversant with the subject-matter with which the statute is dealing would attribute to it". Keeping the dictum of interpretation laid down in the aforesaid two decisions, we are of the opinion that the word "books" has to be understood in its popular sense and has to be given its plain ordinary meaning in which it is understood in the ordinary parlance. The books are meant for learning and now we are nearing the end of 20th century and there has been specialization in every field of learning and with this specialization and interest to know minute details about every matter books are being published for ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ned and it takes in books meant for use of the public to improve their learning and for dissemination of knowledge. On this background we are of the opinion that the booklets, brochures and annual reports when printed and sold would fall within the word "books". The three kinds of books, which the assessee prints, have been placed before us and we find that they squarely fall within the meaning of the word "books" as they are books for learning and for acquiring knowledge or getting information, on a definite matter in which a reader may be interested. As we have already observed above, in the present field of specialization, some books of general information may be of interest to everybody whereas other books of special category may be of interest to those who are interested in that category. Once that is our view, we are constrained to say that we record our dissent to the view taken by the Kerala High Court in Swaraj Printers' case [1973] 31 STC 559, when it observed that the annual report or the annual statements of accounts or publications like "Tea Review" would be used as books of reference by estate owners, auctioneers and shareholders of the companies and not by general re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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