TMI Blog2024 (1) TMI 957X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n of manufacture. However, in the instant case, mere mixing of different types of tea only for the purpose of marketing as tea and not a particular type of tea does not involve any process/manufacture within the meaning of the definition. The High Court rightly answered the questions of law raised before it in favour of the respondent-assessee and consequently, sustained the orders of the Commissioner appeals and Tribunal which had rightly set aside the order of the Assessing officer. Appeal dismissed. - HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE B.V. NAGARATHNA AND HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE UJJAL BHUYAN For the Appellant(s) Mr. R. K. Raizada, Sr. Adv. Mr. Bhakti Vardhan Singh, AOR Mr. Ankit Khatri, Adv. For the Respondent(s) Mr. Dhruv Agrawal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Nishit Agrawal, AOR Ms. Upasna Agrawal, Adv. Ms. Kanishka Mittal, Adv. Ms. Vanya Agrawal, Adv. ORDER 1. The appellant (Revenue) herein is aggrieved by the orders passed in Trade Tax Revision Nos. 1351/2004 and 2989/2004 dated 22.05.2009 and 26.05.2009 respectively by the High Court. The Revenue, represented by the Commissioner of Trade Tax, Uttar Pradesh had filed revision petitions before the High Court wherein ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rs [1993 Suppl (1) SCC 222]( M/s Shiv Datt ); B.P. Oils Mills Ltd. vs. Sales Tax Tribunal and Others (1998) 6 SCC 577 ( B.P. Oils Mills Ltd. ); Commissioner of Sales Tax, U.P. vs. Lal Kunwa Stone Crusher (P) Ltd. (2000) 3 SCC 525 ( Lal Kunwa Stone Crusher ); and Sonebhadra Fuels vs. Commissioner, Trade Tax, U.P., Lucknow (2006) 7 SCC 322 ( Sonebhadra Fuels ). It was contended that the judgment of this Court in Chowgule Co. Private Limited has not been noticed by another three Judge Bench of this Court in M/s Shiv Datt and Sons. Placing reliance on Chowgule Co. Private Limited, it was contended that the assessee was liable to a higher rate of tax as there was a process involved in the blending of different kinds of tea offered for sale and hence, the impugned order(s) may be set aside and the order(s) of the the Assessing Authority may be restored. 7. Per contra, learned senior counsel, Sri Dhruv Agarwal, appearing for the respondent-assessee at the outset submitted that these cases have to be considered from the point of view of a retailer and/or a wholesaler of tea and not from the point of view of a manufacturer or a processor as such. All that the assessee does is to b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y a direct current and then connected to the two terminals of as source of supply and thereafter the plates are dried in the ordinary way, the electrolyte which is formed is thrown out and the plates assembled in the battery manufactured by the manufacturers are dried and sold would amount to a manufacturing process within the meaning of the definition. In the said case, this Court was considering the definition as was found in Section 2(17) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, and Rules made thereafter, which reads thereunder: manufacture with all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means, producing, making, extracting, altering, ornamenting, finishing or otherwise processing, treating, or adapting any goods; but does not include such manufacturer or manufacturing processes as may be prescribed. 11. The said definition is in pari materia with the definition of manufacture which is under consideration. This Court also referred to a judgment of the Bombay High Court in Nilgiri Ceylon Tea Supplying Co. v. State of Bombay (1959) 10 STC 500 (BOM HC) ( Nilgiri Ceylon Tea Supplying Co. ) wherein the very process of the assessee therein purchasing in bulk di ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s the word ornamenting . If a dealer purchases certain goods and merely adds some decorative material thereto, according to the State's interpretation, there will be a manufacture . For instance, if a car is purchased and some lights or some special gadgets are added thereto, the interpretation will result in rendering the resale of the same car the resale of a different commodity. Again, if a piece of furniture is sold in a dismantled condition and the distributor puts the parts together and sells it, the definition, if construed as widely as interpreted by the State, can be said to amount to manufacture and render the furniture sold a different item of goods from the furniture purchased. This clearly is not the intention of the legislature. The purpose of Section 8 is that, where substantially the goods purchased are resold, there should be a deduction of the turnover on which purchase tax has already been paid. This provision should be interpreted in a practical and workable manner. The mere fact that the words used in the definition of manufacture are very wide should not lead us to so widely interpret them as to render the provision practically meaningless and so as to t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... with reference to the particular factual matrix under consideration. 17. We find that having regard to what has been opined by the three-Judge Bench of this Court in M/s Shiv Datt and Sons vis a vis the order on reference made by the Bombay High Court in Nilgiri Ceylon Tea Supplying Co. and bearing in mind similar facts of the present case with that of Nilgiri Ceylon Tea Supplying Co. (supra), the observations of this Court in M/s Shiv Datt and Sons would squarely apply to the present case. The observations of this Court in Chowgule Co. Private Limited with reference to order of reference in Nilgiri Ceylon Tea Supplying Co. must be construed in the distinct factual matrix and different goods involved. The order of the Bombay High Court was not applicable to the facts of the case in Chowgule Co. Private Limited as in the former the case concerned blending of tea which is also the subject matter of this case; whereas the goods involved in Chowgule Co. Private Limited was a particular kind of ore contraction which required a mixing up of several type of ores in particular quantities and in a particular manner and a procedure which involved a process and hence the same was co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
