9911796707
TMI Blog1988 (4) TMI 220X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the bran oil produced by its members out of the rice bran by the method of solvent extraction. The members of the petitioner-association own rice bran solvent extraction mills. They manufacture rice bran oil out of the rice bran through the process of solvent extraction. Rice bran is itself extracted from rice which is produced from paddy by removing the husk. Of course paddy is produced from a plant. 2. The Union Parliament in exercise of its powers under entry 52 List I of the VII Schedule enacted the National Oil Seeds and Vegetable Oils Development Board Act (Act 29 of 1983). The object of the enactment is to provide for the development of the oilseeds industry and the oils industry. In order to reach those goals the Act authorised t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... are producing rice bran oil and who are asked to pay the aforementioned cess imposed by the Central Government under Section 3 of Act 30 of 1983. 3. The scope of this writ petition is limited to finding out whether bran oil is produced from oil yielding material of plant origin. 4. The only argument advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the imposition of cess under Section 3 on the bran oil is not authorised by the provisions of Act 30 of 1983 read with Act 29 of 1983. There is no doubt that Section 3 of Act 30 of 1983 authorised the imposition of cess only on vegetable oils produced in a mill. The argument of the petitioner is that the bran oil is not a vegetable oil within the meaning of these Acts. Act 30 of 1983 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the context there is any justification for this reasoning of the petitioner. On the other hand it does violence to the language used by the statute in its definition. Plant origins of which the definition speaks of can be found only in the beginning and not at intermediary steps. The words plant origin require us to trace the genealogical origins of rice bran to paddy. They would not permit us to stop the investigation into the origins of rice bran at the stage of rice which undoubtedly is the immediate and intermediate source for the production of the rice bran. But rice bran is an integral part of paddy which is undoubtedly of plant origin. Removing husk by which rice is produced and out of which rice bran is produced is not a chemica ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r materials for the purpose of imposition of sales tax. In that connection Courts have held that the rice bran is not the same as husk and that paddy and rice are not one and the same. They are of the slightest relevance to find out whether the oil yielding rice bran is of plant origin. Such a question, in our opinion, can be decided not by the decisions interpreting Sales Tax Act but only by attending to the language and context of the present Act. The rule that the nomenclature used by the Sales Tax Acts should be understood in popular sense and not in technical sense can have no application here. The cases in State of West Bengal v. Wasi Ahmed -1977 S.C. 1638 and M/s. Mukesh Kumar Agarwal v. State of M.P. - AIR 1988 S.C. 563 cannot be of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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