TMI Blog2013 (11) TMI 655X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ings to a deity in a Hindu temple being broken or used on auspicious occasions or used in preparation of the daily table food or in confectionary like biscuits or in the extraction of oil when it is fresh or dried kernel. When a person in the commercial market goes and asks for coconut no one will consider brown coconut to be vegetable or fresh fruit, much less a green fruit. No householder would purchase it as a fruit - dry brown coconut cannot be said to be a fruit and that meaning has to be taken for interpretation of the relevant entry of the EPF Act. The issue in this case is not free from difficulties because coconut is a natural product which is sold in different forms and for different purposes, as stated above, however in my opinio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d converted to either shredded form or grinded/powdered form. The issue is whether this work and industry falls within the expression fruit industry as found in the relevant entry under Schedule I of the EPF Act. 3. The expression coconut has been interpreted differently with respect to different statutes i. e Sales Tax or Commercial Tax etc. etc. We are concerned with EPF Act in this case, and with respect to which Act, this aspect has not been decided before as to whether dry coconut is or is not a fruit. 4. In my opinion, so far as the industry in which the petitioner is engaged, the same cannot be said to be a fruit industry as coconut is not a fruit. Useful reference in this behalf can be drawn to para 5 of the judgment of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... householder would purchase it as a fruit. No doubt in some English Dictionary, coconut is called a fruit or nut but it is to be understood in its ordinary commercial parlance. In Sri Krishna Coconut Co. v. Commercial Tax Officer, Amalapuram, [1965] 16 STC 511 the Andhra Pradesh High Court was to consider whether fully grown coconut with well developed kernel containing water i.e. watery coconut could be called tender or dried coconut. In that context considering the scope of an explanation to Schedule III of the A.P. General Sales Tax 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 th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and Copra, and all these come under the expression coconut. Except in the case of tender coconut from which oil cannot be extracted, in all other cases, oil can be extracted and all of them are regarded in common parlance as oil-seeds. In Sri Lakshmi Coconut Industries v. The State of karnataka and Anr. [1980] 46 STC 404 the Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court was to consider whether desiccated coconut falls within the entry coconut, which is one of the declared goods Under Section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 and 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 c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ely is not a fruit as it is not so understood in common parlance and which meaning has to also apply for interpretation of the relevant entry in the EPF Act. 6. Learned counsel for the respondent Nos. 2 and 3 to contend that coconut is a fruit placed great reliance upon para 30 of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank Ltd.Vs.The Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner, 2009 (10) SCC 123 and which para reads as under: 30. Since the Act is a social welfare legislation intended to protect the interest of a weaker section of the society, i.e., the workers employed in factories and other establishments, it is imperative for the courts to give a purposive interpretation to the provisions contained ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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