Common parlance test excludes handloom carpets from sales tax exemption for handloom cloth.

Handloom tax entries are construed in their ordinary commercial sense, not by broad dictionary meaning, when the statute uses the word "cloth" in a sales tax exemption context. Applying common parlance, the Court treated shetranji or cotton carpets woven on a handloom as a distinct commodity from handloom cloth, and found no contextual basis in the surrounding exemption scheme to enlarge the entry to cover carpets. The result was that such carpets were held outside entry 29 of Schedule A to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959.

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Issues: Whether shetranji or cotton carpets woven on handloom are covered by entry 29 of Schedule A to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 as handloom cloth of all varieties.

Analysis: The expression "handloom cloth of all varieties" was construed in the sense in which persons dealing with handloom cloth would understand it in ordinary parlance, and not in the wide dictionary or technical sense of every woven fabric. The Court considered that the statutory setting and the usage of the word "cloth" in commercial understanding showed that a carpet, though woven from cotton yarn on a handloom, was not the same commodity as handloom cloth. The exemption provisions in the Bombay Sales Tax Laws (Special Exemptions) Act, 1957 and the surrounding schedule entries did not provide a contextual basis to enlarge the entry so as to include carpets.

Conclusion: Shetranji or cotton carpets woven on handloom are not covered by entry 29 of Schedule A to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Ratio Decidendi: Taxing entries describing goods in ordinary commercial language must be interpreted according to the common parlance meaning of the words used, and not according to a broad dictionary or technical definition unless the statutory context clearly requires otherwise.

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