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TMI Blog1984 (4) TMI 275X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rics and to be eligible for exemption from tax? (2) Whether, on the facts and circumstances of cases Nos. 16, 17 and 19, the orders of the assessing authority taxing the turnover as escaped turnover are in conformity with the provisions of section 12 of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act?" It is not necessary to state the facts for the reasons that the learned counsel for the parties are in agreement that in the three cases proceedings for reassessment under section 12 of the Act were initiated and orders were passed. So far as the other two cases are concerned the assessment was made under section 10 of the Act. The assessee-respondent (dealer) deals in cloth, umbrella parts and umbrellas and prepares umbrella covers from umbrella cloth after ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f being an umbrella cloth were lost. He, therefore, maintained the order of the assessing authority. Revisions were filed and the Board opined that umbrella covers come within the definition of textile fabrics and are exempt from sales tax. The Board, therefore accepted the revision petitions, and set aside the orders of the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) in so far as they relate to the taxing of umbrella covers. In these circumstances, the aforesaid questions have been referred to us for decision. "Umbrella cover" being an expression of every day use it must be construed in its popular sense meaning "that sense which people conversant with the subject-matter with which the statute is dealing would attribute to it". It is to be underst ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s whether breaking boulders into metal (gitti) is "manufacture" within the meaning of section 2(1)(a) of the Madhya Pradesh Sales Tax Act, 1947. The Division Bench consisting of Hidayatullah, C.J. (as he then was), and Chaturvedi, J., observed as under: "....................After that stage is reached and the person who has won the stones attempts to break them, may be by manual labour, into sizeable stones for sale as gitti, he is shaping the stone into an object of a different size. Now, the word 'manufacture' has got various shades of meaning. There may be manufacture of a complicated object like the super-constellation, or there might be manufacture of a simple object like a toy kite ............................................ The ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l value and which can be the subject-matter of sale for a price in course of the business of selling or supplying in which the dealer is engaged, and that there is no reason to exclude the chopping of timber into firewood from the ambit of manufacturing process. On the other hand, Mr. M.L. Kala, the learned counsel for the dealer has cited Lakshmiratan Cotton Mills Co. Ltd. v. Sales Tax Officer [1962] 13 STC 1031 and Jaipur Hosiery Mills (P.) Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan [1967] 19 STC 416 in support of his contention that even after cutting and stitching, the umbrella cover retains the character of umbrella cloth, and so it is a textile fabric exempted from payment of sales tax. Before a learned single Judge of the Allahabad High Court in L ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or an activity to amount to manufacture, it must result in a different commercial article or commodity. In other words, it must not be commodity which is commercially the same as it was before the activity was applied to it. This was so held in Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. [1978] 41 STC 471. The word "manufacture" refers to products made by hands or machinery. It means "the making of articles of material by physical labour or mechanical power or to work up material into forms suitable for use". In the Oxford English Dictionary "manufacture" has been defined as the action or process of making by hand or by mechanical device. In Webster's Law of International Dictionary "manufacture" has been defined as a process ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y available should be allowed to continue after that process. In that connection the Board has, inter alia, noticed the instances of re-rolling of scrap, reverting of iron into steel, etc., the waxing of cloth, the cutting of cloth in different sizes for choli, bits and sarees, the printing of designs on cloth, sugar, patasa and alchidana (small lumps of sugar) and the moulding of coal dust into cylinders. In our opinion this is not the correct test for the simple reason as what one has to see is whether after the process of cutting and stitching of the umbrella cloth and giving it a shape, for attaching it to the ribs and handle, can it be used like a cloth which it could be prior to the aforesaid process which it had undergone. In other w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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