Godowns and warehouses - Indian Laws - General

Meanings of godowns and warehouses In the Oxford English Dictionary , the word godown means A warehouse or store for goods. Warehouse , according to the said dictionary , is described as a building or part-of a building used for the storage of merchandise; the building in which a wholesale dealer keeps his stock of goods for sale; a building in which furniture or other property is housed, a charge being made for the accommodation: a Government building (more fully bonded warehouse) in which dutiable imported goods are kept in bond until it is convenient to the importer to pay the duty. According to Webster s New Twentieth Century Dictionary , godown means warehouse and warehouse means a building where wares, or goods, are stored, before being distributed to retailers: a storehouse . In Stroud s judicial Dictionary (volume 5, fourth edition), we find the following observation : A warehouse , in common parlance, certainly means a place where a man stowes or keeps his goods which are not immediately wanted for sale. Reliance was placed on behalf of the assessee on the observations immediately following: In 1751, on Clerks of Assize Act, 1698 (10 Will, 3, c. 12), it was held that warehouses meant not mere repositories for goods but such places where merchants and other traders keep their goods for sale in the nature of shops, and whither customers go to view them. It must immediately be mentioned that this is not a common parlance meaning but a meaning given to a warehouse referred to in Clerks of Assize Act, 1698. In Black s Law Dictionary (fifth edition) , warehouse has been described as a structure used for the reception and storage of goods and merchandise . It further states that the term may include any structure used to hold goods, stores or wares temporarily or for a length of time . Aiyar s judicial Dictionary (ninth edition), defines godown as a storage, or warehouse. According to that dictionary , a warehouse is a place licensed for the storage of goods. Halsbury s Laws of England (fourth edition), Note 3 to paragraph 428 on page 204 reads as under : Warehouse means a place used for the storage of goods, even temporarily, as in a dock transit shed: A storage place which is ancillary to a business which is wholly or substantially retail is not a warehouse: A room in the basement under retail sale-rooms used for storing goods temporarily until wanted in the sale-rooms was held not to be a warehouse in Burr v. William Whiteley Ltd. [1902] 19 TLR 117. These cases are not to be taken as laying down an absolute rule of law that no building can be a warehouse if it is connected with a retail business alone; it is possible even in a retail business to have a building which may be in the fullest sense of the term a warehouse. It will appear from the above dictionary meanings of godowns and warehouses that both these terms are synonymous and interchangeable. The common parlance meaning which can be attributed to godowns or warehouses is that they must be used for the purpose of storage of goods even for a temporary period. CIT, GUJARAT II VS AHMEDABAD MASKATI CLOTH DEALERS CO-OPERATIVE WAREHOUSES SOCIETY LIMITED - 1985 (10) TMI 41 - GUJARAT HIGH COURT