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TMI Blog1975 (12) TMI 145X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... conditioning plants. The assessee, however, contends that they are not refrigerators or air-conditioning plants, but electrical goods falling under entry No. 26 of the same schedule. The relevant entries in the Act are as follows: "Entry Refrigerators and air-condiAt the point of first 10 No. 9. tioning plants and composale in the State by (later) nent parts thereof. a dealer who is liable 12 to tax under section 5. Entry All electrical goods, instruments, Do. 7." No. 26. apparatus, appliances and all such articles, the use of which cannot be had except with the application of electrical energy, including fan and lighting bulbs, electrical earthenwares and porcelain and all other accessories and component parts either sold as a whole or i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... refrigeration, water-coolers were only small tanks containing cool drinking water, whereas refrigerators were cup-boards in which ice could be made and food and other things could be kept cooled or preserved by mechanical production of low temperature. The Tribunal said: "A customer who seeks to purchase a refrigerator will not be offered a water-cooler by any dealer and vice versa. Viewed in this light, we find that the water-coolers in question do not fall within the meaning of 'refrigerators and air-conditioning plants and component parts thereof' under item No. 9 of the First Schedule. The turnover in dispute will therefore be taxed only at the rate applicable to electrical goods." 3.. In Krishna Iyer v. State of Kerala[1962] 13 S.T.C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... popular sense. (2) 'If a word in its popular sense and read in an ordinary way is capable of two constructions, it is wise to adopt such a construction as is based on the assumption that Parliament merely intended to give so much power as was necessary for carrying out the objects of the Act and not to give any unnecessary powers. In other words, the construction of the words is to be adopted to the fitness of the matter of the statute.' (3) On the other hand ........ 'if it is a word which is of a technical or scientific character then it must be construed according to that which is its primary meaning, namely, its technical or scientific meaning'." 5.. Applying the above principles, one has to ascertain whether watercoolers and refrige ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... water-cooler cannot be regarded as anything other than a refrigerator. The Bombay High Court in that case followed the principle that articles mentioned in the relevant entries of the Sales Tax Act had to be construed in their commercial sense, and rejected the contention of the assessee that the expression "refrigerator" was generally and commercially understood as a refrigerator used for domestic purposes only. There was clear evidence in that case to show that the cooling plant which was used for mercerising processes was capable of being used for refrigeration purposes also. It was not an apparatus solely and exclusively meant for mercerising processes. The facts of that case are not similar to those in the present case, although it ma ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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