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1986 (1) TMI 79

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..... der section 32A(2)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, by holding also that the definition of the word 'manufacturing process' i.e., undergoing a change as a result of cold storage operation, given in section 2(k) of the Factories Act, 1948, will not be imported for the purpose of allowing investment allowance to the assessee ? " The material facts giving rise to this reference, briefly, are as follows: The assessee is a registered firm deriving its income by operating a cold storage plant. For the assessment year 1979-80, the assessee filed a return disclosing loss of Rs. 19,250 by claiming deduction of Rs. 92,639 by way of investment allowance, under the provisions of section 32 A of the Act. The Income-tax Officer rejected that claim on .....

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..... r and the assessee must, therefore, be held to be carrying on the business of manufacturing cool air. Reliance was placed on the decision in CIT v. Yamuna Cold Storage[1981] 129 ITR 728 (P H). In reply, the learned counsel for the Revenue contended relying on Delhi Cold Storage (P.) Limited v. CIT [1985] 156 ITR 97 (Delhi), that operation of a cold storage plant did not result in manufacture or production of any article or thing. Before we proceed to appreciate the contentions advanced on behalf of the parties, we have to bear in mind that for substantiating a claim for deduction of any sum by way of investment allowance, the assessee has to satisfy that the conditions prescribed by section 32A of the Act are satisfied. In the instant cas .....

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..... acture or production of any article or thing. Now, the words " manufacture " and " production " are not defined in the Act. It has been held by the Supreme Court in Ram Narain v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1957 SC 18, that it is not a sound principle of construction to interpret expressions used in one Act with reference to their use in another Act. The Tribunal was, therefore, right in holding that the definition of the words " manufacturing process " in the Factories Act, 1948, could not be imported into section 32A of the Act. It is well settled that when any Act does not define a word used in that Act, the Legislature must be taken to have used that word in its ordinary dictionary meaning (See South Bihar Sugar Mills Ltd. v. Union of .....

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..... of being passed on from hand to hand as a commercial commodity. In this connection, it would be useful to refer to certain decisions, which throw light on the meaning of the word " manufacture" in the absence of any definition of that word in the relevant Act. In G. R. Gulkarni v. State, AIR 1957 MP 45 ; (1957] 8 STC 294 (MP), a Division Bench of this court observed that though the word " manufacture " has got various shades of meaning, the essence of manufacture is the changing of one object into another for the purpose of making it marketable. In Union of India v. Delhi Cloth General Mills Co. Ltd., AIR 1963 SC 791, it has been held that " processing " cannot be equated with II manufacturing" and that the word " manufacture " used as a .....

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..... e relevant Acts. There is also another principle of construction of statutes that when a word is not defined in an Act, assistance may be taken from the use of that word in other parts of the Act to discover in what sense it has been used therein (see Bhogilal Chunilal Pandya v. State of Bombay, AIR 1959 SC 356). In this connection, reference may be made to the following proviso to section 80J(1) of the Act: " Provided that in relation to the profits and gains derived by an assessee, being a company, from an industrial undertaking, which begin, to manufacture or produce articles or to operate its cold storage plant or plants after the 31st day of March, 1976, or from a ship which is first brought into use after that date, or from the bu .....

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