1973 (2) TMI 126

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..... cise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab v. M/s. Parkash Chand Kishan Kumar, Nabha, held that chokar of wheat is husk and is covered by item 15 of Schedule B appended to the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948. His reasons for this conclusion are as under: "The first ground taken by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that wheat chokar of the value of Rs. 7,484.94 sold by the petitioner-firm falls under item 15 of Schedule B of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948, and is, therefore, not liable to sales tax. The simple question for decision before me is whether wheat chokar which is bran falls under item 15 of Schedule B of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948, and item 15 is husk of all foodgrains and pulses. Bran has been defined .....

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..... rom the grains. They are not marketable commodities and the Legislature would not have meant to include in Schedule B these commodities which are neither of any value nor collected nor marketed. It has been urged that item 15 covers only outer husks of wheat grains which are strawy in texture and are not meant for animal consumption. But as discussed above, they are worthless, they are not marketable commodities and they are not collected by the farmers at the time of thrashing of wheat and they are not obtainable in the market. It could not be the intention of the Legislature to refer in Schedule B to such commodities as no useful purpose would be served by such reference. Chokar on the other hand is a marketable commodity and is used for .....

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..... re exempt from the payment of sales tax and item 15 in that schedule reads "husk of all foodgrains and pulses". The learned judges referred to the meaning of "husk" in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and in Hindi-Punjabi Kosh, published by the Department of Punjabi, Patiala, in its edition 1953, where it is defined to mean "atte da chhanas, kanak, jaon ade da chhilka, chhan, bura". In the AngloHindi-Punjabi Glossary of Administrative and General Terms, published by the Department of Languages, Punjab, edition 1962, the Hindi meaning of the word "bran" is chokar, bhusi. It was observed that the definition of the word "bran" as given in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary covers chokar also. It is thus evident that the question of l .....

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