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TMI Blog1990 (11) TMI 396X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... duct. It was placed on a par with the bread to all intents and purposes. It was so treated even by the Government initially. Later came a revision of its view by the Government. Bun is not bread but only a bakery product-was the new view taken by the Government. That view was expressed under an enabling power which the Government got under the amended Act of 1978 section 59A. The change of view had serious impact on the fiscal position of the petitioner. It agitated its grievances along the hierarchy of statutory authorities. Even the Tribunal felt impelled to follow the directive of the Government under section 59A. Relief was therefore elusive for the petitioner. The final knock was at the court's door. 2.. Elaborate contentions of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... been attempted. In relation to the averments regarding bun, bread and bakery products, the counter-affidavit gives the views of the Government on sandalwood oil and such other things! Repeated directives of the court to restructure the functioning of this department, at any rate in relation to the conduct of the cases before the court, have fallen on deaf ears and on indifferent minds. These difficulties notwithstanding, the court has to perform its duty. 5.. Undisputed facts may be set out at the outset. For the purpose of these cases, history need be traced only from 1963 when the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, came into force. "Bread" figures in item 14 of Schedule III of the Act. A conjoint reading of section 9 with that Schedule ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tc. The ingredients of bread and bun are same, viz., maida, sugar, salt, fat, yeast, GMS, vitamins, premix, potassium bromate, acetic acid and calcium propionate. The process of manufacture is also identical. In the case of both bun and bread the various steps and stages in manufacture are mixing raw materials fermenting, remixing, dividing, rounding and moulding, pruning, baking, cooling and packing." It is emphasised that bread is manufactured and marketed in different names and forms to suit the tastes and requirements of the consumers. 10.. Further factual details about the components and the process have been given in the additional affidavit dated July 30, 1990. It is stated: "The ingredients of bread and bun are maida, sugar, sal ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ken in by the entry "bread" occurring in entry 14. The decision was rendered by Chief Justice Bhaskaran and Justice V. Bhaskaran Nambiar. (Vide T.R.C. No. 50 of 1985 dated July 19, 1985). The State took up the matter by way of special leave to the Honourable Supreme Court of India [S.L.P. (Civil) No. 1539 of 1986]. The Supreme Court was disinclined to disturb the finding of this Court. A binding decision of this Court, therefore, gives the answer to the question posed. The decision was rendered by Judges with intimate nexus with a centre noted for its bakery expertise, Tellicherry. (Such intimacy with the background area or essential activity connected with the determination of a question had been reckoned as additionally advantageous facto ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f a near identity of bun with bread. [See Queen v. Wood [1869] LR 4 QB 559; 38 LJMC 144, Aerated Bread Co. v. Gregg [1873] LR 8 QB 355 and Bailey v. Barsby [1909] 2 KB 610]. 14.. Quite often, courts commend a common sense view or the housewife's understanding in relation to the interpretation of a word or term. Plenteous illustrations are available. Enumeration of all of them is unnecessary. Some may be, however, alluded to, to make the point clearer. 15.. Even a casual acquaintance with life and literature may bring about the findings of close observations. All are eager to have their daily bread, the hardened and materialist and the devout religionist. No one would grudge if bun is given in the place of bread. "The Word Origins and Th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s the bread baked there. Burke brought out his thoughts and details of scarcity as follows: "And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them." The statement will have equal efficacy by a substitution of bun for bread. That is so even in the lines of Lewis Carroll: "'A loaf of bread', the Walrus said, 'Is what we chiefly need:..........'" So also is the case with Kipling: "I have eaten your bread and salt, I have drunk your water and wine. I have eaten your bread. (Departmental Ditties: Prelude). There does not appear to be any violence in attempting similar substitution whether it be in the hymns of common prayer ("Wine that maketh glad the heart of man:.... an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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