TMI Blog1990 (11) TMI 400X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... coconut) and the High Court dismissed the writ petition holding that the brown coconut is not an exempted green fruit but would attract general item No. 55 of Rule 14 of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Octroi Rules (for short 'the Rules'), The admitted facts are that the appellants import and sell the brown coconut in the city of Ahmedabad as their trading activity. The respondent levied octroi on brown coconuts at the rate of Re. 1 per 100 kilograms at the point of import into the octroi limits of the respondent corporation. By an amendment to the rules, with effect from April 6, 1975 the rate of levy was increased to ₹ 5 per 100 kilograms. The appellants challenged its legality contending that the brown coconuts are gree ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Sales-tax, U.P. v. S.N. Brothers, [1973] 31 STC 302 this Court held that the expression occurring in schedules to the sales tax Act have to be considered with reference to their meaning in ordinary commercial parlance and should not be considered according to the strict scientific meaning. In Ramavtar Budhaiprasad's case, this Court held that betel leaves, though vegetable leaves in the strict scientific sense, cannot be considered to be vegetables. In ordinary commercial language in the common parlance, betel leaves cannot be considered as vegetables. Coconut in the ordinary commercial sense is understood in several forms as tender coconut, watery coconut, dried coconut and Copra and all these come under the expression coconut. Tender ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ry or external parts of the inflorescence seemed to be integral with them. Any vegetable product used as food or otherwise serviceable to man, as grain, cotton, or flax; also such products, collectively: the fruits of the earth. Therefore, in the context of the octroi it could be legitimate to conclude that all kinds of fresh fruits are exempted articles. 6. In P.S. Thillai Chidambara Nadar v. Addl. Appellate Asstt. Commissioner, Madurai and Anr. [1985] 60 STC 80 this Court was to consider whether ripened coconut which is none other than watery coconut is an exempted article as vegetable under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act (1 of 1959). This Court held that fresh fruits and vegetables being household articles of everyday use for th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act, 1957 which exempted tender coconut from the sales tax under the Act, it was held that in a tender coconut, the kernel is hardly formed or is only in the initial stages of formation. In a dried coconut the kernel has formed and fully developed and further the water inside the coconut has dried up leading to the drying of the kernel also. But a fully grown coconut with a well developed kernel, which contains, water cannot be called either a tender or a dried coconut. This is well-known that coconut is used for culinary purposes and on auspicious occasions and as part of the offerings in temples. It was held in that case that the watery coconuts are fully developed coconuts and they are exigible to sales tax. In Kunchi Rajeshwara Sastry ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is also included at entry 5 of the Fourth Schedule to the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957. In that context the meaning of the word oil-seeds was extensively examined by the Division Bench and held that desiccated coconut is a coconut and a declared good Under Section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, In Deputy Commissioner of Agrl. Income-tax and Sales-tax, Kerala v. A.P. Raman, [1960] 11 STC 263 the Kerala High Court also took the same view. In Commissioner of Sales-tax v. Ram Kumar Nand Kumar, [1973] 31 STC 321 the Allahabad High Court also held that coconut is an oil-seed within the definition of Section 3-AA(1)(vi) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948. 7. In the light of the above discussion we conclude that the watery coconut (brown c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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