Toilet articles versus soap classification determined the tax treatment of depilatory preparations under sales tax law.

Badshahi soap and Badshahi powder were construed as toilet articles because, in their ordinary sense, they were used for cleansing and grooming the person and functioned as depilatory preparations. Their tax character was not altered by the fact that one product was marketed as a soap. For the exception in Entry 6 of Schedule I, a soap was understood as a cleansing agent made by the action of alkali on fat or fatty acids; these goods did not meet that description because their cleansing effect was not produced in that way. They were therefore treated as toilet articles, not soaps, and were liable to special sales tax.

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Issues: Whether Badshahi soap and Badshahi powder were toilet articles falling within Schedule I, Entry 6 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1946, and if so whether they were excluded as soaps, so as to be liable to special sales tax.

Analysis: The expression "toilet articles" was construed in its ordinary sense as articles used for cleansing and grooming the person. On their composition and use as depilatory preparations, the goods were held to be toilet articles. The mere fact that one product was marketed as a soap did not control its tax character. A soap, for the purpose of the exception in Entry 6, was understood as a cleansing agent made by action of alkali on fat or fatty acids. The articles in question did not satisfy that description, since their cleansing effect was not produced by the action of alkali on fat.

Conclusion: The articles were held to be toilet articles and not soaps, and were therefore liable to special sales tax.

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