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TMI Blog1987 (9) TMI 202X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ased on personal observations which cannot be made the basis of classification. (c) It ignores the IS1 specifications which are a piece of evidence showing that Self Starter is a distinct commodity from electric motor. 2. In view of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Atul Glass and Bombay High Court judgment in Sahney Steel Pressworks Item 34A read with item 68 is a specific entry which must prevail over a general Entry i.e. Item 30. Hence Self Starter cannot be classified under item 30. 3. Under cognate legislation electric motor and starter motor and starter motors are considered as separate goods : Customs Tariff Act 75 Heading 85.01 electric motor Heading 85.11 starter motor. Customs Tariff Act 86 Heading 85.01 electric motor. Heading 85.11 starter motor. 4. The IDR Act also recognises that electric motor and starter motors are distinct products meriting separate classification and industrial licences. 5. The burden of proving that starter motor falls under Item 30 has not been discharged by producing any evidence and so the appellants classification has to be accepted. 3. T ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mirrors were not glass and glassware and did not fall under any of the sub-headings like (1) flat glass, (2) laboratory glassware, (3) glass shells, glass globes, chimney for lamps and (4) other glass and glassware including table ware, but fell under tariff Item 68 which covered all other goods not elsewhere specified. In Paragraph 7, after discussing certain details relating to the matter and the past history of the dispute and the practices of the department, the court set out to examine the merits. The merits indicated to the mind of the Hon ble judges that the original glass sheet underwent a complete transformation when it emerged as a glass mirror. What was a piece of glass simpliciter was now a commercial product with a reflecting surface. Into the process of transformation, had gone successive stages of processing with chemicals, washing, coating, drying etc. etc. The court observed that the evolved product was completely different from the original glass sheet and what was once a glass piece in its basic character had been reduced to a mere medium. This was clear if regard was had to the fundamental function and qualities of a glass mirror. It would be noted that not onl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... urt in the Atul judgment will not support the assessment of self-starter under Item 68. Atul found the glass mirror, by a detailed process of logical induction, to be not a glass or a glassware. This was the spirit and the substance. The glass mirror had to leave its hearth and home to find another shelter where it could; the court found one for it in Item 68. 11. The self-starter has undergone nothing to compel its departure from the electric motor heading. Indeed, contrary to Sahney Paris Rhone s belief, the self-starter would not be assessable under Item 34A; not even before its 1979 amendment. That head ran thus : Parts and Accessories of Motor Vehicles Not Other Specified. This head, before the 1979 amendment, covered all motor vehicle parts; but the parts it covered must not be specified elsewhere. Since the self-starter is an electric motor, it could not have gone to item 34A because it is a part of a motor vehicle specified otherwise or elsewhere i.e. in heading 30. This is the ratio in Paragraph 7 of the Bombay High Court s judgment in writ petition No. 326 of 1981 Sahney Steel and Press works v. Union of India. 12. It is, of course, argued on behalf of Sahney Paris Rh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and to be used as a cranking device. Its period of activity has to be limited because it needs only to start the motor car engine. A normal motor can perform over long periods of time and is designed for just such sustained performance. 15. The fact of the matter is that the self-starter, or starter motor or self-starter motor is nothing but an electric motor. Its principle of construction contains nothing to distinguish it from an electric motor and the learned counsel was not able to point to any. Like all electric motors, the starter motor has, field windings, armature, rotors and stators. It has a central rotating member, the rotor, and the outer non-rotating member, the stator. It is the shaft in the central rotating rotor that carries the toothed gear that, on activation, engages the engine flywheel to crank the engine. This activation is caused by the entry of a DC current which causes an electromagnetic moment of force, which in turn exerts torque. Since only the rotor is free in its bearings, the torque forces it, rather than the rigid stator, to rotate, causing the central shaft to turn and thus to deliver its output of mechanical energy. This is the basic principle of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lines of this magnetic field cut or are cut by windings on the free member (the rotor) causing it to move. Since it can move only in one direction viz. circular, the whole winding on the rotor shaft is turned, causing the rotor to spin. This spin of the rotor is the output of the motor that is harnessed to do work. T he work of a motor is to turn and provide movement to other machinery to which it is coupled (splined shaft, belt and pulley, chains and sprocket etc.); a self-starter s work is to provide movement to an internal combustion engine till its internal motive power comes into play i.e. the engine fires. 19. A man s need for an image reflector is supplied by a glass mirror; his need for a device to crank his automobile engine is supplied by a motor - the self-starter motor. The self-starter cannot do the work unless it operates on the principle of a motor. No mechanical device can provide the service of starting an automobile engine except a motor and let me repeat, all people who know the subject, traders, engineers, mechanics, the Indian Standards, engineering text books, call it a motor. And like all motors, it has all the components and parts of a motor - it is const ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ded for. Therefore, if one reads Item 34A with Item 16 it becomes clear that Tyres as part of motor vehicles has been otherwise specified under Item 16. But certainly, starter armature as part of motor vehicles has not been provided elsewhere and therefore, it must necessarily be classified under Item 34 A. If there is elsewhere in the tariff, an item for a part, that part will not fall under Item 34A. The starter armature had not been provided elsewhere, so it would have to be classified under Item 34A. For the same reason, motor vehicle tyres must fall under Item 16, though they are without doubt, parts of a motor vehicle. 22. All the indicators, common parlance and technical parlance, point in the direction of a motor; a motor for cranking an internal combustion engine. Unlike the glass mirror, the motor has not had anything done to it to eliminate it from the motors Head 30. The glass, said the hon ble Supreme Court, lost its glass character, and became a reflecting medium, to fulfil the need not for a glass but for a mirror. The self-starter fulfils the need for a motor and that is what it does when it is installed in the engine compartment of the motor vehicle. Its load ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... st appropriate for it. It would not do to assess a commodity just anywhere our fancy takes us. And a further rule accepted by every one is that the particular must take precedence over the general. A starter motor is nothing but an electric motor. In this condition, there is an item more specific and particular for it under Item 30 which covers ELECTRIC MOTORS, ALL SORTS, AND PARTS THEREOF. Not this sort nor that, but all sorts. A starter motor is one sort of motor; there are scores more. But all of them must be assessed under Item 30. Item 68 does not nominate motors or any other things. We have seen how Item 30 should take precedence even over 34A Parts and Accessories of Motor Vehicle, not otherwise specified. How much more easily should it take precedence over 68. 26. The learned counsel for M/s. Sahney Paris Rhone laid emphasis on the Supreme Court injunction in the Dunlop decision AIR 1977 SC 597 = 1983 E.L.T. 1566 (S.C.) and relied by the Bombay High Court in 1981 E.L.T. 432 Advani-Oerlikon Ltd. The court held that the meaning of articles in a fiscal statute must be as people in trade and commerce, conversant with the subject, generally treat and understand them; that tech ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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