KITTAPPA DRESS MANUFACTURING AND EMBROIDERY WORKS Vs. STATE OF MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is the sole proprietor of a business at Madurai run in the name and style of Sri Kittappa Dress Manufacturing and Embroidery Works. He is a "dealer" in textiles, within the charging provisions of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939. He is dealing in ready-made garments, silk choli bits and saris. In the year 1955-56 he carried on business between 1st April, 1955, and 16th May, 1955, and again from 12th July, 1955, to 31st March, 1956. For that year he returned his turnover of sales as Rs. 95, 600-8-3. THE Deputy Commercial Tax Officer, Madurai Town III, scrutinised the account books of the petitioner and found that the net turnover of the petitioner was as follows : (1) Ready-made garments - Rs. 19, 165-4-3 (2) First sales of silk choli bits - Rs. 74, 471-0-9 (3) First sales of saris - Rs. 2, 013-15-6 total Rs. 95, 650-4-6. In respect of the sales turnover of the ready-made garments the tax was levied at the rate of 3 pies per rupee, but in respect of the sales turnover of "choli" bits and saris, tax was levied at the rate of Re. 0-1-6 per rupee. THE petitioner contended before the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer, Madurai Town, that the levy of tax at the rate of Re. 0-1-6 for silk choli bits and saris was not proper or in conformity with the provisions of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939. This contention was however overruled by the taxing authority. THE petitioner preferred an appeal against the levy of Re. 0-1-6 tax on the silk choli bits and saris to the Commercial Tax Officer, Madurai, but that was dismissed. THEre was a further appeal by the petitioner before the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Madras, in Tax Appeal No. 828 of 1957. THE Tribunal confirmed the decision of the taxing authorities. Hence this revision petition is filed by the petitioner.THE only question that arises for determination in this revision petition is whether the assessee is liable to pay sales tax at the rate of Re. 0-1-6 per rupee which is an enhanced levy, the normal rate of taxation being only three pies in the rupee. It is necessary to know what are "choli" bits before going into the question whether they attract the special taxing provisions of the enactment, Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939. THE description of choli bits is given by the Appellate Tribunal in the following words to which no exception has been taken before us :

(2.) THESE choli bits are therefore mere cut pieces of a particular dimension, 7/8 yard, from a large piece of cloth suitable for being converted into a bodice or the upper garment of a woman. There is of course some embroidery work done in these cut lengths for their ready adaptability of being made into a woman's garment. A sari is the familiar woman's dress in India and it needs no annotation to understand what it is. Reference may however be made to the dictionary meaning of the term sari. Chambers' Dictionary gives the meaning as "a long cloth wrapped round the waist and passed over the shoulder and the head." Oxford Concise Dictionary gives the meaning as "a length of cotton or silk wrapped round the body worn as main garment by Hindu women."We shall now consider as to how far the choli bits and saris come within the charging provisions of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939 so as to attract the levy at the rate of Re. 0-1-3 in excess of the ordinary rate of levy of three pies per rupee. Section 3(1) of the Act, the charging section, reads as follows :

(3.) EXPLANATION I describes fine or superfine cotton cloth. It is contended on behalf of the petitioner by his learned counsel that silk choli bits and saris do not answer the description of cloth as given in the taxing statute. The argument urged is that choli bits and saris are garments or clothes and not cloth. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, cloth in its popular sense, and which sense must be deemed to have been imported into the statute by the framers of the Act, can only mean woven stuff in its pristine, native condition and not the embellished stuff.