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TMI Blog1962 (12) TMI 44X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... essee and are for the next two assessment years. The assessee is a dealer in books, stationery and diaries and has been assessed to sales tax in the three assessment years on turnovers which include proceeds of sale of diaries. Under section 3 of the Act sales tax is payable in an assessment year on a turnover, i.e., the aggregate of proceeds of sale of goods by a dealer. Section 4 (as it stood then) exempts proceeds of sale of "water, salt, foodgrains, milk, gur, electrical energy for industrial purposes, books, magazines, newspapers and motor spirit", and empowers the State Government to exempt by notification in the official Gazette proceeds of sale of other goods. In exercise of this power the State Government has issued Notification ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed narrative, record, representation, or series of these. Specifically, a. A formal written document. b. A collection of tablets ..... of sheets of paper, parchment, or similar material, blank, written, or printed, strung or bound together; commonly, many folded and bound sheets containing continuous printing or writing; especially, when printed, a bound volume, or a volume of some size, as distinguished from a pamphlet. c. A volume without a cover. d. A literary composition. e. A major division of a treatise or literary work. (Webster's New International Dictionary). (1) A writing, a written document. (2) A (written) narrative or account, record, list, register. (3) (Generally) A written or printed treatise or series of treatises, occupyin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ly, or which come under his personal observation. (2) A book prepared for keeping a daily record, or having spaces with printed dates for daily memoranda and jottings. (Murray's New English Dictionary).+ It will be noticed that the word "book" has got several meanings; in its wider sense it means a writing and a collection of sheets of paper, blank, written or printed, strung or bound together and a diary would come within this meaning. In the restricted sense it means that which we may read and find instructions or lessons, a literary composition. A diary would not come within this restricted meaning because primarily it is meant to be written on and not to be read. That there is some writing printed on it which is intended to be, and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ount books, etc. There was no reason for placing exercise books, account books, and diaries in the same class as water, food, milk, salt and electricity. That the Legislature used the word in a restricted sense is borne out by its adding in section 4 "magazines" and "newspapers". A magazine and a newspaper both are "books" according to their wider meaning and if the Legislature had used it in the wider meaning it would not have added the words "magazines, newspapers". "Exercise books" are books according to the wider meaning, but the State Government by including "exercise books" in the notification interpreted the word in the restricted sense so as not to include "exercise books". I do not think this interpretation of the word by the Sta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and in the ordinary course they could be and were handled like books, they could be used like books in the sense that, as, one turned over the sheets, one could read the various letters as a collection of letters bound up in the books and that they were not detachable letters but were in substance permanent parts of the volumes. Those observations are hardly of any assistance in the determination of the question whether a diary is a book within the meaning of section 4 of the Sale of Goods Act or not. "Book" used in section 4 of the Sales Tax Act does not necessarily bear the same meaning as the word used in an Englishman's will. It is also by no means certain that Maugham, J., would have interpreted "books" to include diaries. My answer i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ot strictly speaking a canister, but a solid and substantial thing of wood, or metal, or some other such solid substance, which can be covered over so as to prevent ignition from a spark." The Legislature has used the words, "books, magazines, newspapers, ....." in section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948. According to the several dictionary meanings to which the word is amenable, "books" could mean any thing from a collection of blank sheets strung or bound together to a written or printed narrative or treatise. Magazines or newspapers must necessarily be printed or written material. Therefore, to fall in the same distinct category, the word "books" used here must be confined to a printed or written record. Accordingly, I agree that the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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