Wanchoo, C. J. - (1.) THIS is an application by firm Murlidhar Brijmohan and four other firms dealing in ground-nut oil under Art. 226 of the Constitution against the State of Rajasthan and three officers of the Sales Tax Department.
(2.) THE question arising in this petition lies in a small compass. THE applicants are carrying on trade in ground-nut oil. THEy were asked by the various officers of the Sales Tax Department to submit the accounts of their dealings in ground-nut oil in order that sales tax may be assessed on them. THEir contention is that ground-nut oil is exempted from sales tax as it is an edible oil and all edible oils are exempt from sales tax according to item 17 of the Schedule to the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act. But it seems when they wanted to raise this point before the various Sales Tax Officers they were met by a confidential circular of the Sales Tax Commissioner to all Sales Tax officers in which the Officers were told that ground-nut oil and betel leaves were commodities liable to sales tax. Consequently, in the case of the applicants sales tax on the sales of ground-nut oil has already been levied while in the case of three of the applicants notice has been given and sales tax will be levied in due course according to the circular, referred to above. The application has been opposed on behalf of the State and two main points have been urged before us. In the first place it is urged that as there is a specific procedure provided in the Sales Tax Act which is a special taxing statute, we should not interfere at this stage. The second is that ground-nut oil is not an edible oil and is, therefore, not exempted under the Sales Tax Act. So far as the first question is concerned, namely, that this court should not intervene at this stage, it is enough to say that we do not consider it necessary to go into the wider question whether where there is a special procedure provided under a special Act for dealing with a matter of this kind this court should intervene in the middle while that procedure has still to be gone through. In the Sales Tax Act the procedure is that the Sales Tax Officer assesses the tax. Then there is an appeal ; but no appeal can be filed till the amount of the tax has been deposited. Thereafter, there is a revision and finally a question of law can be referred by the Sales Tax Commissioner, who is the revising authority, to this Court or this Court can order such reference. The contention on behalf of the State is that this Court should not intervene at this stage because the procedure under the Sales Tax Act is still in the course of application. There is a good deal of force in this argument ; but as we have pointed out above we do not think it necessary in the special circumstances of this case to give a final opinion on this point. In the present case it is enough to point out that a confidential circular has been issued by the Sales Tax Commissioner and according to that circular the Sales Tax Officers have been told that groundnut oil is not an edible oil and should, therefore, be taxed. No discretion is thus left in the assessing authority in this matter. It has, however, been urged that this circular has not been addressed to the appellate authority. The appellate authority in this case is said to be Deputy Commissioners of Sales Tax who are also departmental officers under the Sales Tax Commissioner. It may be mentioned that the Commissioner of Sales Tax is not only a departmental head but also the revising authority and it is he who is the final quasi-judicial authority in this matter by virtue of sec. 14 (2) of the Act. It cannot be said that the circular which has been issued by him to the Sales Tax Officers is not known to the Officers who are working as an appellate authority. Though it is marked confidential, yet it has really not been treated as such for the applicants have been able to produce a copy thereof. Thus we are of opinion that so far as the commodities mentioned in this circular are concerned, it would really be a farce for any assessee to go to the appellate authority or the revising authority. We are, therefore, of the opinion in the peculiar circumstances of this case that we should intervene at this stage. The present proceedings before us may be taken to be almost at par with what happens if the case is referred to this Court under sec. 15 of the Act. The next question is whether ground-nut oil is an edible oil or not. We are mindful of the fact that the question whether a particular commodity is ground-nut oil or not is a question of fact and it is for the department to decide it, But where the Act has used certain terms which include a large number of commodities, the question whether that term includes certain commodities is, in our opinion, a question of law. Take for example the very word 'edible oil'. Now there is more than one kind of oil which is edible. We know there are a number of oils which are edible. The question, therefore, whether a certain oil is edible or not is a question of law. But the question whether a certain oil is, for example, ground-nut oil or til oil or sarson oil is a question of fact. When we are asked to decide whether ground-nut oil is an edible oil we are really deciding a question of law which can be referred to us under sec. 15 of the Act. So far as this question whether ground-nut oil is* an edible oil or not is concerned, we must say that because of the circular issued by the Sales Tax Commissioner the question has not been really considered by the Sales Tax Officers. But the applicants have produced a certificate of the Chief Public Analyst which says that ground-nut oil is an edible oil in its raw or refined form provided it has not developed rancidity. There is no dispute as to the meaning of 'edible'. It means any article of food or anything fit to be eaten by a human being. Then we come to food. According to the Webster's New International Dictionary 'food' is nutritious material consisting of protein, carbohydrate and fat. According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 'food' means anything taken in order to maintain life and growth and to supply waste. Fats are both animal and vegetable as will be clear from the chemical meaning of 'fat' given in the Webster's New International Dictionary. Butter is animal fat while vegetable fat according to this dictionary is of considerable varieties. Now it is common knowledge that ground-nut oil is a vegetable fat and it can be used for human consumption and is so used in many parts of India. We are, therefore, of opinion that ground-nut oil is an edible oil within the meaning of item 17 of the Schedule to the Act. It is, therefore, exempt from sales tax. We, therefore, allow this application and direct that no further proceedings for the recovery of sales tax on ground-nut oil should be taken against the applicants and where the sales tax has been paid it shall be refunded. Where the tax has already been assessed, the assessment is 'quashed. The applicants will get their costs from the State. . ;