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TMI Blog1975 (1) TMI 83X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d not be construed that mere dehusking of paddy and getting rice amounted to "manufacture" and, on the facts and circumstances, it could not be said that there was any consumption of goods in the manufacture of other goods for sale or otherwise, and the imposition of sales tax under section 6(i) was not right. The correctness of this conclusion is challenged in these revision petitions. 3.. It is urged by the learned Government Advocate that paddy and rice are two different articles and are not the same and the conversion of paddy into rice amounts to "manufacture" according to the dictionary meaning or in its grammatical sense, as by means of processing, paddy is converted into rice for consumption or utilisation and, therefore, it must be held that there is consumption of goods in the manufacture of other goods for sale or otherwise and, as such, the purchase turnover was liable to tax. Alternatively, it is contended that even if it be held that there was no manufacture of goods for sale or otherwise, the assessee has disposed of such goods in a manner otherwise than by sale in the State and, therefore, the turnover attracted the imposition of tax under section 6(i) of the Act. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aryana General Sales Tax Act, 1948, made a distinction between rice and paddy and each of them had been treated differently. On this reasoning the claim of the assessee was rejected. 7.. In our opinion, this decision does not resolve the question for consideration in these cases, which is whether there is consumption of paddy in the manufacture of other goods for sale or otherwise. The process by which rice is got is by dehusking and removing the husk from the paddy. It appears to us to be jarring to say that rice is manufactured from or out of paddy. Paddy or rice is a food article. Rice is already in that form in paddy. No new substance is brought into being by merely dehusking paddy. In older times rice was got from paddy by hand pounding. Sometime later this pounding was done by a mechanical contrivance. After the introduction of machinery the same process of pounding or removing husk is carried on by huller and mills. The mere change in the employment of the means for dehusking would not result in the change or character or nature of the article. The land on which paddy is grown is called paddy-field or rice-field and the two expressions are used as interchangeable and withou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , wherein it was held that the removal of the peanuts from the shell did not render them a manufactured commodity despite the employment of machinery in shelling and cleaning the raw peanuts. 10.. In Stroud's Judicial Dictionary (3rd Edition), construing the meaning of "manufacture", it is stated: "The word 'manufacture' said Abbott, C.J., in R. v. Wheeler[1819] 2 B. & Ald. 345., 'has been generally understood to denote either a thing made which is useful for its own sake and vendible as such, as a medicine, a stove, a telescope and many others; or to mean an engine or instrument, or some part of an engine or instrument, to be employed either in the making of some previously known article or in some other useful purpose as a stocking frame, or a steam engine for raising water from mines; or it may perhaps extend also to a new process to be carried on by known implements or elements acting upon known substances, and ultimately producing some other known substance but producing it in a cheaper or more expeditious manner or of a better or more useful kind. No mere philosophical or abstract principle can answer to the word "manufacture". Something of a corporeal and substantial natur ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not follow that if the first part of sub-clause (i) is not attracted, the second part must automatically apply. The word "dispose" involves an element of transfer of title in goods. The learned Government Advocate referred to the decision of the Supreme Court in Ganesh Prasad Dixit v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, Madhya Pradesh[1969] 24 S.T.C. 343 (S.C.). In that case, the appellants who were a firm of building contractors, had purchased building materials and used the materials in the course of their business. The materials purchased had been used up in the construction of buildings and they became part of those buildings. The learned Judges were interpreting the provisions of section 7 of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act (2 of 1959). It was held that the building materials had been purchased in the course of the business of the assessees and those materials were taxable under the Act and the appellants had consumed the materials other than in the manufacture of goods for sale and for profit-motive and, therefore, on the plain words of the section, the purchase price was taxable. It is clear from the facts in that case, that the building materials had actually been used up i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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