9911796707
TMI Blog1961 (4) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n Kaimganj Tahsil in the District of Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh. Petitioners 18 to 30 are partners or proprietors or agents of firms which are private bonded warehouse licensees and they carry on trade and business of purchasing tobacco from the cultivators and of selling the same to dealers or to other private warehouse licensee and they carry on trade business of purchasing tobacco from the cultivators and of selling the same to dealers or to other private warehouse licensees. By their petition the petitioners have asked for a writ, direction or order in the nature of mandamus to be issued to the respondent, the Union of India, restraining it from levying excise duty on hooka and chewing tobacco under the impugned item and any other wri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at basis. 2. The tariff entry in dispute as it now obtains under the taxing statute is Entry 4 in the First Schedule. It deals with tobacco. Under this entry "tobacco" means any form of tobacco, whether cured or uncured and whether manufactured or not the tobacco plant but does not include any part of a tobacco plant while still attached to the earth. Clause I in Entry 4 deals with unmanufactured tobacco and prescribed tariff per kilogram in respect of the several items specified in it. Item (1) under this clause deals with five categories of tobacco which are flue cured and are used in the manufacture of cigarettes as indicated in the said five sub-clause; item (2) deals with tobacco which is flue cured and used for the manufacture ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... escribed by reference to the use to which tobacco is put and it is urged that the tobacco with which the petitioners are concerned is not actually used either for cigarettes or smoking mixtures or biris and the fact that it is broken and not whole leaf does not afford any rational basis for classification. 3. In dealing with this argument it would be relevant very briefly to refer to the report of the Tobacco Expert Committee whose recommendation have furnished the main basis for the present revised tariff in respect of tobacco. In substance this report shows that present tariff cannot be said to have been prescribed either wholly or even primarily by reference actually to the use of tobacco. Tobacco, as the Committee's report points ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and what is incapable of use in biris. The position is complicated because the same tobacco is used for different purposes in different parts of the country according to the prevalent consumption habits of different types of tobacco, and the Committee realised that any system of classification on a uniform basis for the whole of the Indian Union is bound to involve greater imposts on consumers of those areas where the prevalent custom is to consume a variety for chewing snuff, hooka, cigar purposes while the same varieties are used in other areas for biris. The conclusion of the Committee, therefore, was that the only criterion which is safe to adopt is the one relating to the physical form of tobacco as affecting its suitability for biri m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he two articles are different. By the test of capability of user they are different and in a sense according to the Committee's recommendations they partake of the character of different commodities. In this connection it may be pointed out that though the tariff impost on the tobacco falling under the impugned Clause (6) is much higher, biris in the manufacture of which no process has been conducted with the aid of machines operated with or without the aid of power are not subject to any tariff, whereas cigars, chewing, cigarettes and biris in the manufacture of which any process has been conducted with the aid of machines operated with or without the aid of power are subject to tariff. The problem which the Committee had to face was to cl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lusive user of Nicotiana Rustica are generally denied what is more the report of the Committee specifically points out that though not known to be used for biris, when they are cured in broken leaf grades they can be used with admixture with biri tobacco like Pandharpuri tobacco for imparting strength to biri mixtures, and so according to the Committee no generalisation in this matter is possible and it cannot be asserted that all the forms of this variety are incapable of use of biris. Besides, it would be quite possible for dealers in the said varieties of tobacco to send them to other parts of the country where they are used for the purpose of manufacturing biris. Therefore, the grievance made by the petitioners that the tobacco in which ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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