Ordinary meaning of machinery: a hand-operated cottage basin used for silk reeling falls within the tax entry.

A cottage basin used in the silk industry for spinning and reeling silk was treated as "machinery" within item 20 of Schedule 2 to the Mysore Sales Tax Act, 1957. Because the Act did not define "machinery," the term was given its ordinary meaning and read to include a mechanical contrivance made up of interdependent parts working together to achieve a specific result. The apparatus, consisting of a hand-operated wheel, gear-wheels and reels, regulated the winding of silk thread, improved efficiency and reduced knotting and labour. Manual operation did not prevent it from being machinery, and the Tribunal's contrary view was held to be incorrect.

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Issues: Whether a "cottage basin" used in the silk industry for spinning and reeling silk is "machinery" within item 20 in Schedule 2 to the Mysore Sales Tax Act, 1957.

Analysis: The Act contained no statutory definition of "machinery", so the term had to be understood in its ordinary sense. The apparatus in question consisted of mechanical parts, including a hand-operated wheel, gear-wheels and reels arranged to work in combination. Its interdependent movement regulated the winding of silk thread so as to produce a definite and specific result, namely, reeling silk efficiently while avoiding knotting and reducing labour. The fact that the apparatus was worked by manual power did not exclude it from the description of machinery. On its special facts, and applying the ordinary legal understanding of machinery as a mechanical contrivance achieving a specific result, the apparatus fell within the entry.

Conclusion: The "cottage basin" is machinery within item 20 in Schedule 2 to the Mysore Sales Tax Act, 1957, and the Tribunal's contrary view was incorrect.

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