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TMI Blog2008 (8) TMI 765X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tment, it was revealed that “tinted sheet glass” is being manufactured through a different process. This being the position, the argument of the dealer-applicant is meritless. In view of the above discussion, find no illegality in the order of the tribunal holding that the tinted glass sheets are liable to be taxed under notification No. 5784 dated 7-9-1981 as glassware it falls in Entry No. 4 and not as an unclassified item. The revision is dismissed. - 1060 of 2003 - - - Dated:- 12-8-2008 - Prakash Krishna, J. REPRESENTED BY : Shri Bharatji Agrawal, for the Appellant. Shri B.K. Pandey, for the Respondent. [Order]. - The only point mooted in the present revision is whether tinted glass sheets manufactured by the applicant is liable to be taxed as goods or wares made of glass under the notification no. 5784 dated 7-9-1981 being Entry No. 4 or as unclassified item. 2. The dispute relates to the assessment year 1996-97 under the U.P. Trade Tax Act. The facts of the case are not much in dispute and may be noted in brief. 3. The applicant is engaged in the manufacture and sale of sheet glass, figured glass, neutral glass tubes in its factory situate ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f glass. 4. It may be noted that the authorities below have also noticed the manufacturing process of tinted glass sheet. It has noticed that the manufacturing unit of the applicant was surveyed by the Special Investigation Branch Unit Allahabad, and in that survey it was found that the tinted glass sheet is being manufactured in a separate unit and in the raw material cobalt oxide, carbon oxide, iron oxide etc. are mixed to manufacture the tinted coloured glass sheet. A special manufacturing process is adopted. The density and transparency of the tinted coloured glass sheet is different from that of ordinary sheet glass. The solar absorption power of tinted coloured glass sheet is much more than plain sheet glass and in the market or in common parlance tinted glass sheet is not treated as plain sheet glass . 5. The main thrust of the argument of the learned senior counsel for the petitioner is that on a true and correct reading of the aforestated notification, the tinted sheet glass does not fall in the category of a goods and wares made of glass it being plain glass panes as provided for in the said Entry. 6. The argument is that tinted glass sheet manufactured b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ereafter. It was submitted that the glass sheet is neither glasswares nor goods of glass. In this connection reliance was placed on CST, Delhi Administration v. Baluja Glass Company (1980) 46 STC 17. In this case the following Entry came up for consideration :- Glassware, glazedware and china-ware including crockery. 9. The assessing authority treated the glass panes and glass sheets as falling under the head glasswares in the above Entry. The High Court while interpreting the Entry held that glassware means containers or vessels or other item of use made of glass and would not include glass sheets or window panes, cut out of the glass sheets. It expressed its dissent with Commissioner of Sales Tax, Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur v. Mohanlal Ramkisan Nathani (1955) 6 STC 136 and Tribuwandas Gulabchand and Brothers, Nagpur v. State of Maharashtra (1965) 16 STC 452. While distinguishing the case of Tribuwandas Gulabchand of Bombay High Court it was said that whether the glassware is glass, as understood in the trade parlance, could be determined only on evidence, but if evidence was not available the question had to be decided on the consideration of the entry. 10. Then, reliance ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Court has relied upon its earlier decision in CST v. Banaras Bead Manufacturing Company Limited, Varanasi, (1970) 25 STC 100 wherein it was held that the term glassware must be taken to refer to all articles of glass except those specifically excluded or those separately listed in other Entries. On this finding it was held that glass beads were included in the terms of glasswares . 12. In view of the aforesaid authoritative pronouncement of Division Bench of this Court, there is little scope for me to reconsider the matter. So far as the Allahabad High Court is concerned, the matter is no longer res integra and it has been set at rest by a Division Bench decision given in M/s. U.P. Glass Works Limited (supra) that all articles made of glass are glasswares. So far as the glass sheet is concerned, the matter also stands concluded specifically. 13. The facts of the present case are almost identical to the facts as they were in M/s. U.P. Glass Works. Therein as well as in the case on hand, there is no finding by any of the authorities below that the glass sheet manufactured by the dealer is in the shape of raw material rather it is in the shape of finished commodity. It is so ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iple as laid down in the case of Gujarat Steel Tube, therefore, is not at all attracted and it is besides the point. 15. So far as the decision in the case of M/s. Maqsood Mohammad (supra) is concerned, it is distinguishable on facts. The controversy involved therein was quite distinct. Salt is an exempted item under Section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act. The State Government had issued a notification under Section 3A of the said Act wherein. In the Entry of species, dry fruits and condiments, Kala Namak was included but salt was excluded. This Court took the view that Kala Namak is still a salt and salt being an exempted item under Section 4, could not have been taxed under Section 3-A of the Act. The Court was concerned more with regard to the interplay of notification issued under Sections 4 and 3A of the U.P. Sales Tax Act. The court proceeded to decide the controversy that Kala Namak even if it is manufactured by the process as alleged by Sales Tax Authority, is a species of edible salt, it comes within the ambit of word salt in Section 4(1)(a) of the Act and cannot be taxed u/s 3A of the Act. Held. Section 4 of the Act deals exemption from sales tax. 16. The notificat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e words All goods and wares are significant. The intention of the Legislature is clear to include in its ambit any goods and wares made of glass. Earlier the Entry was of glasswares alone. Even then, this Court in U.P. Glass Works Ltd. (supra) held that glass sheet is included therein. The Entry was amended subsequently and by adding words All goods its scope and ambit have been widened further. These words are of great significance and do clearly demonstrate the intention of legislature to include all goods and wares of glass unless excluded as specified therein. When the Entry is in its widest term and also provides exclusion of specified articles, it means that Legislature intended to include all item in the Entry except specified items excluded therein. As held in the case of U.P. Glass Works, unless it is shown that the glass sheet is raw material, it is either good of glass or glassware cannot be disputed. In the present case, the glass sheets are being sole as finished item to the customers as found by all the authorities below, which is essentially a finding of fact. It follows that the commodity in question is goods or wares of glass and the contrary argument of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s. Cf. mountain (def. 4). 19 The plains. See Great Plains. [ME OF L plan (us) flat, level, plan (um) flat country] - plan ly, adv. - plain ness, n. 22. In the Compact Oxford Reference Dictionary audited by Catherine Soanes the word Plain means - 1. simple or ordinary 2. without a pattern 3. unmarked 4. easy to see or understand................. In the Dictionary by Webster the word plain means as follows :- (plein) 1. adj. easy to see or understand simple, not embellished or complicated absolute, complete, plain madness (of food) unelaborate, not having unusual or spicy ingredients bluntly frank unsophisticated lacking physical beauty, but not ugly 2. n. a large expanse of level, open country 3. adv. manifestly, it s just plain wrong clearly, candidly, she told him plain [O.F. fr. L] Pane by Webster s Dictionary means as follows :- Pane - n. a single sheet of glass in a window, greenhouse etc. a division of a window etc. containing such a sheet of glass in a frame a flat side or edge of a many-sided object. 23. The learned standing counsel, Shri B.K. Pandey, on the other hand, relied upon Oxford Dictionary for meaning of word pane . It is reproduced ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ss mirror the word glass is descriptive of mirror and in that the glass has been used as medium for manufacturing the mirror. In this case, the judgment of this Court in CST v. Banaras Beads Manufacturing Company has been noticed. The relevant portion is extracted below :- Reliance was placed by the Revenue on Commissioner of Sales Tax, U.P. v. Banaras Bead Manufacturing Co. (1970) 25 STC 100 (All.) where the Allahabad High Court held that glass beads could be described as glassware for the purpose of a notification issued under the U.P. Sales Tax Act. The decision of the High Court rested on the manner in which the contextual setting was altered in successive and different notifications promulgated under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, indicating the content of the expression as developed through successive notifications. The learned senior counsel placed before me the Indian Standard Specification for Flat Transparent Sheet Glass (Third Revision) of March 1988 with regard to the flat transparent sheet glass. Glass and Glass sheet have been described in the following manner :- 2.1 Glass - An inorganic product of fusion which has cooled to a rigid condition without crysta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... kitchen garden and are used for the table and did not comprise betel leaves within it and, therefore, betel leaves were not exempt from taxation. 27. Lastly, by placing reliance upon a judgment of the Apex Court in Ponds India Ltd. v. CTT - 2008 (227) E.L.T. 497 (S.C) = (2008) 15 VST 256 (S.C.) it was submitted that the burden is upon the Revenue to show that the tinted glass sheet falls in the aforestated item of the notification. Advancing the argument further, the learned counsel submits that the department having failed to show that the tinted glass sheet falls in the aforesaid Entry, it is liable to be taxed as unclassified item. The said question does not arise on the facts of the present case as it has been held to be glassware. In the assessment order it has been noticed by the assessing officer that the tinted sheet glass is different than the plain sheet glass and is understood in the commercial word, differently. The manufacturing process of the two are also different. The said findings were not challenged or even if challenged have attained finality as the tribunal, the last fact finding authority, has found that the tinted glass sheet does not fall in the plain glas ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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