TMI Blog1980 (10) TMI 202X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on, small fluffs and sweepings are blown in air or dropped on the floor. These fluffs, sweepings etc., are commonly known as cotton waste. Small quantities of cotton are wasted in various processes of manufacture of cotton fabrics at various stages. This cotton waste cannot be used for textile purposes and is quite different from cotton. Under Cotton Control Order, issued under the Essential Commodities Act, a licence is required to be taken by the dealers from the Textile Commissioner for carrying on business or trade in cotton, including-storage, sale and purchase of cotton. As cotton waste is not cotton, no licence is required under the Essential Commodities Act as mentioned above. 4. By Notification No. 584/XII-VIII-104-76, dated 11th April, 1978 the provisions of Uttar Pradesh Krishi Utpadan Mandi Adhiniyam, 1964 were enforced in various districts including Meerut and Ghaziabad. By that notification the items mentioned in Schedule (b) of the same were included in the list of specified agricultural produce. In Schedule (b) of the notification, Item No. 3 of Group IV Febrics included cotton ginned and unginned. According to the petitioners they were dealing in purchase and sa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... such agricultral produce which comes within the definition of the said term and which has been specified in the notification contemplated by Section 6 of the Act. 9. Some of the items of the produce specified in the Schedule are also saleable in a mixed form. For an illustration I may take the mixture of wheat and barley commonly known as Gojai. Another such mixture used in this country contains wheat, gram, barley and pea. Two or more of these grains mixed together are commonly known and used as Bejhar. These would come within the purview of the clause, admixture of two or more of such items . Bejhar is mentioned in the Schedule. It may perhaps include Gojai as well. It would not have been necessary to mention Bejhar in the Schedule if it was to be treated as agricultural produce without such a mention. 10. Besides admixture, any such item in processed form is also included in the definition of Agricultural Produce . It is to be seen whether cotton waste would be a processed form of cotton, and, if so, whether it can be included in the term Agricultural produce. 11. Processing yields two types of products. Firstly those which retain their identity and secondly which ar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lour. But under the extended definition in the Act quoted above they could be such items in a processed form. 16. The learned counsel for the petitioners contended that the cotton is included in the Schedule to the Act in class A. Agriculture, Group IV. Fibres, at serial no. 3. The entry is as under: 3. Cotton (ginned or unginned). 17. The cotton as plucked from the plants contains Binaula i. e. seed attached to the fibre. This Binaula as separated from the fibre is also a valuable oil seed. The process by which the seed is removed from the fibre is known as ginning. It can be done by hand by a simple machine in which the cotton is passed through wooden rollers. The cotton seed which is too big and hard is pulled off as a whole and the fibres pass through rollers. Ordinarily cotton alone i. e. unginned cotton would be agricultural produce but by extended definition ginned cotton which can be identified as 'a processed form' of cotton has also been included in the agricultural produce. 18. From a study of the schedule we find that the legislature wanted to include an item, which lost its original identity by processing, as agricultural produce , it did so by ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rom 1 to 2.5 cm. This is used for making coarse and inexpensive fibres. The cotton waste as described in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary Vol. T. means refuse yarns from cotton mills used for cleaning machinery etc. This product firstly is not cotton. Secondly it is essentially a mill waste consisting of tiny fibres of cotton mixed with dust etc. which cannot be used for the purpose of weaving. However, according to the learned counsel for the respondents coarser articles like dusters or Durries can be made out of it. 21. What I have to consider here is whether cotton waste and cotton resemble each other so much that they can be classed together. Learned counsel for the petitioners relied upon two cases in support of his argument that cotton waste was neither ginned nor unginned cotton. In Sapt Textile Products (India) Private Ltd., Bombay-1 v. The State of Madras, reported in (1965) 16 Sales Tax Cases on page 267 (Madras), it was held that the cotton waste was not covered by entry 'ginned or unginned cotton' under the Madras Sales Tax Act. It was held that the cotton waste was covered under the general residual entry and was an item different from ginned or unginne ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s appears that cotton waste cannot be treated ascotton in a processed form. This point, however, need not detain me further for I am of opinion that even if for the sake of argument cotton waste was to be treated as cotton in a processed form, it does not appear to have been the intention of the Legislature, to make a transaction in regard to cotton waste, liable to pay market fee. The scheme of the Act indicates, as already pointed out above, that such processed items of agricultural produce on which market fee has been made chargeable have been included in the Schedule referred to in the definition of the term agricultural produce . Reference to some such items in processed form e. g. Makhana, Kitechu etc. has already been made above. Even ginned cotton which will strictly be a processed form of cotton has been included in the Schedule, but cotton waste has not been so included. For this reason I am of opinion that market fee cannot be realised on a transaction in respect of cotton waste. 26. Learned counsel for the respondents referred to the definition of cotton in two Central Acts. The First is Cotton Ginning and Pressing Factories Act, 1925. In clause (b) of Section 2 o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... under the D.P. Krishi Utpadan Mandi Adhiniyam, 1964 (in short the Act) is payable on a transaction in respect of cotton waste. Since the liability to pay market fee in question is the creature of a statute the simple question which, according to me, falls for consideration is whether the Statute, namely, the Act permits levy of this fee on a transaction in respect of cotton waste. In my opinion, it is not necessary to go into the question as to what is the concept, in common parlance, of the terms agriculture, agricultural produce and an item of agricultural produce in a processed form. When a term is defined in an Act general notions in regard to that term are of little relevance. On a conspectus of the definition of the term agricultural produce , and specified agricultural produce given in the Act and keeping in view the nature of the items contained in the Schedule to the Act, reference to which has been made in the definition of the term agricultural produce , it appears that even such items which are not in their original form but strictly speaking can be termed as products of the items in their original form are also included in the term agricultural produce . Some such ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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