COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX MADHYA PRADESH INDORE Vs. JASWANT SINGH CHARAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been carrying on business and is a dealer in firewood and charcoal. For the period from March 29, 1962 to April 29, 1962, he was assessed to sales tax under S.18(6) of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1958 as he did not have any registration certificate in respect of this period. The Additional Sales Tax Officer, Ujjain, and the Additional Appellate Assistant Commissioner, Indore, both held that charcoal in which the appellant was dealing was not covered by Entry I of Part III of Sch. II to the Act, but that it fell under the residuary Entry I of Part VI of that Schedule; and consequently was liable to be assessed at the rate of 4 per cent of the price of charcoal. In a further appeal before the Board of Revenue, the Board, relying on the dictionary meaning of the word 'coal' as given in Blackies Concise Dictionary, held that charcoal would be included in the term 'coal', and, therefore, Entry I in Part III of Sch. II would apply and the tax chargeable would be at 2 per cent only. At the instance of the Commissioner of Sales Tax, the Board referred the following question to the High Court :-

(2.) The meaning given to the word 'coal' in Blackies' Concise Dictionary, New Edition, p. 134 relied on by the Board reads as follows:-

(3.) According to these Dictionaries 'coal' would appear to include 'charcoal'. The contention of the respondent was that charcoal is one of the species of coal, and, therefore, would be covered by Entry I of Part III, and, therefore, the answer given by the High Court is correct. Counsel for the State, however, raised three contentions; (1) that coal and charcoal are different products, one being a mineral product and the other prepared from wood and other articles by human agency, and, therefore, the term 'coal' would not cover charcoal; (2) that while construing such entries, the dictionary meaning should not be preferred to the popular meaning or the meaning in the commercial sense; and (3) that the Legislative policy in reference to the term 'coal' shows that it is not used by the Legislature in India so as to include charcoal.