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Issues involved: Determination of whether the assessee is an 'industrial company' as per section 2(7)(d) of the Finance Act, 1966 and whether the assessee's hotel business qualifies as engaging in the manufacturing or processing of goods.
Summary: The High Court of Madras was tasked with determining whether the assessee, a company running a group of hotels, should be classified as an industrial company under section 2(7)(d) of the Finance Act, 1966. The primary contention revolved around whether the company's activities, particularly in the preparation of food, constituted manufacturing or processing of goods as per the legal definition. The Tribunal initially ruled in favor of the assessee, considering their hotel business as engaging in the manufacture of articles of food, citing precedents from New Taj Mahal Cafe Ltd. and P. Lakshmanrao and Sons cases. However, the Revenue argued that the interpretation of 'manufacturing or processing of goods' in the Finance Act should not rely on definitions from other statutes, as highlighted in the CIT v. Casino Pvt. Ltd. case. The Court emphasized that statutory terms must be understood within the context of the specific Act, and definitions from one statute cannot be directly applied to another. While acknowledging the previous decisions on food preparation in hotels as manufacturing activities, the Court differentiated between manufacturing and trading concerns, asserting that a hotel primarily engages in trading activities. Ultimately, the Court concluded that the hotel business of the assessee did not qualify as manufacturing goods under the Finance Act, 1966. The distinction between industrial undertakings and hotel businesses under the Income Tax Act further supported this decision. Therefore, both questions were answered in the negative against the assessee, with costs awarded to the Revenue. This judgment clarifies the interpretation of 'industrial company' and the scope of 'manufacturing or processing of goods' under the Finance Act, emphasizing the need to consider statutory terms within their specific legislative context.
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