TMI Blog1978 (11) TMI 77X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion throughout their dispute with the excise authorities has been that their product can never be classified as `glass' or glassware', but the petitioners have not succeeded in establishing their contention before the Assistant Collector of Central Excise and thereafter in appeal before the Collector of Central Excise and finally in revision before the Joint Secretary to the Government of India. It is thereafter that they have moved the Court contending that the approach and the conclusions to be found in these three orders are perverse and cannot and ought not to be sustained by a Court of Law. It is these grievances and contentions of the petitioners which require investigation. 2. The excisability of the article is claimed by the Excise authorities under Item 23A(4) of the first Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944; the entire Item may be set out and it reads as under : "23A-GLASS AND GLASSWARE (1) Sheet glass and plate glass ... 10% ad valorem (2) Laboratory Glassware ... 5% " (3) Glass shells, glass globes and chimneys for lamps and lanterns. ... 10% " (4) Other glassware including tableware ... 15%" ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the Respondents, submitted that the product manufactured by the petitioners could be properly regarded as a special type of glass and since that product could assume and did assume various shapes and could be made in sheets, rolls, tubes and several other shapes as are indicated in the trade brochure shown to the Court the final product could be regarded as `glassware' and would attract excise duty under Item 23A(4). At first glance the submission appears unusual, if not startling, but a closer investigation in many a disputed question may serve to remove erroneous first impressions and that has been the purpose of the learned Counsel for the respondents. 5. In ordinary parlance `glass' represents and conjures picture of a transparent lustrous, hard, and brittle substance produced by fusing sand (silica) with soda or potash, (or both), usually with the addition of lime, alumine, or lead exide, `Glassware' in ordinary parlance means articles or items made of such brittle, lustrous and transparent substance. 6. The word `glassware' has come up for consideration before the Courts in several cases particularly in connection with the levy ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ntern chimneys" in Entry No. 15 which addition was suggestive that but for the addition these items could have been covered by the entry and could have been covered only if glassware were understood in an enlarged sense. 7. Whether glass beads would be glassware" came to be considered by the Allahabad High Court in Commissioner, Sales Tax. U.P. Lucknow v. Banaras Bead Manufacturing Co. Varanasi - 25 S.T.C. 100. The phraseology of the entry was similar as the entries earlier considered by the High Court at Nagpur and glassware was required to be given the widest possible meaning particularly by the use of the excepting words following the entry and excluding from its purview hurricane lantern, chimneys and bottles. The very same High Court came to consider whether the entry would cover glass sheets manufactured and sold for use as window and door panes and not as raw material for manufacture or fabrication of other articles out of it and it was held that such panes would be encompassed in the expression `glassware'. 8. The Orissa High Court was required to consider the expression `glassware' in State of Orissa v. Janata Medical Stores, 37 S.T.C. 33. The Orissa High Court in the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the form of rigid blocks, which are cut to a variety of shapes. The voids amount to more than 90 per cent of the total volume." The author then deals with the various applications of this special product viz. cellular glass. 11. It will have to be accepted that for scientific purposes this product Cell-O-Therm which is made from broken glass in the manner earlier indicated, may be considered to be a special type of glass and certainly it would be required to be so considered for the purposes of a scientific work on glass engineering technology; but this would not justify the application of this extreme, peculiar and scientific meaning to be given to the expression `glass' and `glassware' in Item 23A. To that extent I am in full agreement with the observations to be found at page 34 of the decision of the Orissa High Court in 37 S.T.C 33. For the purpose of giving the proper meaning in the expressions `glass' and `glassware' to be found in Item 23A, glass will have to be understood as understood in ordinary parlance as indicated earlier and in such parlance this special scientific type of glass which may be scientifically put within the category of `glass' though it may bea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
