1972 (6) TMI 57

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..... ct 10 of 1963 is as follows: "Bullion pure or alloy and specie." It is at the stage of the issue of notice under section 16 of the Act, that the petitioner filed the above writ petition and sought a writ of prohibition against the proposed reassessment under section 16. The petitioner also prayed for stay of the reassessment proceedings. Though the writ petition was admitted, this court was not inclined to grant a stay of the reassessment proceedings and in fact, allowed the proceedings under section 16 to be completed subject to the condition that the tax, if levied, will not be collected from the assessee till the disposal of the writ petition. It is now seen that the assessing authority has completed the assessment under section 16 and h .....

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..... ad in any degree. Before the rendering of the said decision by the Tribunal, the department as well as the dealers were all along treating even gold or silver got out of smelting as bullion and were construing the expression "bullion" as including alloy gold or alloy silver. As the said decision of the Tribunal was contrary to the existing commercial practice adopted by the dealers and as it was likely to cause hardship to the dealers if the alloy gold or silver is to be treated as not coming under the expression "bullion", the Legislature stepped in and the Madras Act 10 of 1963 was enacted. Even before the enactment of Madras Act 10 of 1963, to make the interpretation of the expression "bullion and specie" clear, a Division Bench of thi .....

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..... swanathan's case(1) cited supra. The Tribunal in the said case has taken the view that the term "bullion pure or alloy and specie" should be understood in a technical sense and that if so understood, it would mean "gold or silver in bulk as produced from the refinery". It is obvious that the Tribunal overlooked the significance of the addition of the word "alloy" in item 15. The Tribunal has proceeded on the basis that precious metals can be called "bullion" when smelted and not perfectly refined or when refined, but in bars, ingots or in any form uncoined as in plate. The Tribunal refers to the commercial. practice and states that the words in item 15 have to be understood in a commercial sense. But as we understand, the commercial practic .....

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