- (1.) THESE are four references made by the Revising Authority under Section 11 of the U. P. Sales tax Act. The question common to each reference is "whether betel leaves fall under the category of green vegetables ?
(2.) THE assessees are dealers in betel leaves, and Section 3 of the U. P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, provides that, subject to the provisions of that Act, every dealer shall in each assessment year pay sales tax on his turnover of the previous year. Section 4 provides however that no tax shall be payable, inter alia, on such goods which the State Government may by a Notification in the official Gazette exempt from time to time ; and on the 7th June, 1948, the State Government issued a Notification exempting from the provisions of the Act various classes of goods including as item No. 4 "green vegetables and fresh fruits". The assessees contend that betel leaves are fresh vegetables within the meaning of this exemption,
(3.) NOW the word vegetable is capable of being used in two senses; generally, as meaning a living organism belonging to the vegetable kingdom, and more particularly as a plant cultivated for food. We can entertain no doubt that it is in this latter sense that the word is used in the notification, for in addition to exempting fresh fruits the Notification exempts cereals and pulses (Item No. 1), atta, maida, suji and bran (Item No. 2), certain kinds, of edible oils (Item No. 5)and groundnuts (Item No. 12) to which no reference would have been necessary had the word "vegetable" been used in its wider sense. "green" also is a word with more than one meaning, but in our opinion it is used in the Notification not as an adjective of colour but figuratively, as meaning young and tender in contrast to "dried".;