M.C.Desai, C.J. - (1.) At the instance of the assessee the Judge (Revisions), Sales Tax, U.P., has referred to this Court for its opinion the following questions : (1) Whether in the circumstances of the case, the sales of old newspapers were exempt from tax under Section 4(1) (a) of the Act ? (2) Whether in the circumstances of the case, the sales of old newspapers were exempt from tax under the head of paper and newsprint under Notification No. ST-199-X/928, dated 1st April, 1948, item No. 10 issued under Section 4(1) (a) of the Act ?
(2.) We find from the statement of the case that the assessee is a dealer in Kirana and medicine. The turnover on which it was assessed to sales tax in the assessment year 1950-51 included proceeds of sale of bundles of old newspapers admittedly sold by it as waste paper. The statement does not show how old these newspapers were. Under Section 4 of the Sales Tax Act the provisions of Section 3 are not to apply to the "sale of water, salt, foodgrains, gur, electrical energy for industrial purposes, books, magazines, newspapers and motor spirit" and any other goods which the Provincial Government may exempt from time to time. In exercise of this power the State Government issued a Notification No. 119/X-928-1948 dated 7th June, 1948, exempting among other articles "paper and newsprint". The assessee claimed exemption in respect of the turnover on the sale of old newspapers under Section 4 and did not rely upon the notification at all. The exemption was refused by the Sales Tax Officer, the Judge (Appeals) and the Judge (Revisions). The view that they took was that what was sold was not "newspaper" but "waste paper". Then in an application under Section 11(1) the assessee for the first time claimed exemption also under the notification. That explains why question No. (2) has been referred by the Judge (Revisions). His jurisdiction was to refer to this Court only questions of law arising out of the order passed by him under Section 10 and the question whether the assessee was entitled to exemption under the notification or not did not arise out of the order passed by him under Section 10 for the simple reason that the assessee had not raised this question at all in revision. Question No. (2), therefore, could not be referred to this Court by the Judge (Revisions) and we refuse to answer it.
(3.) As regards question No. (1) our answer is that what the assessee sold was not newspaper but waste paper. Reference to Section 4(1) (a) in the question is a mistake ; it should be Section 4 because the provision regarding exemption was contained in Section 4 and it was not divided into Sub-sections at all in 1950-51. The articles might have been newspapers on the dates on which they were printed and published but they ceased to be newspapers later. Newspaper means a paper containing news. The papers sold were newspapers on the dates when they were printed and published because then what was printed in them amounted to news. After a lapse of time what was printed in them ceased to be news and consequently they ceased to be newspapers.;