Expanded sales tax exemption for hotel food and drinks covers consumption beyond the premises and customer locations.

Entry 14 of Schedule A to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 was construed broadly to exempt cooked food and non-alcoholic drinks served by a hotel or eating establishment for consumption not only in or immediately outside the premises, but also at any other place outside the establishment, including a customer's premises. The enlarged phrase "or outside" was read as curing the narrower wording of the 1953 Act and removing the earlier mischief of taxing ordinary low-value hotel sales. A narrow reading that limited "outside" to the immediate vicinity was rejected because it would make the added words redundant and defeat the legislative purpose.

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Issues: Whether cooked food and non-alcoholic drinks served by a hotel or eating establishment for consumption at any place outside the establishment, including at a customer's premises, fall within entry 14 of Schedule A to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 and are exempt from tax.

Analysis: The exemption under entry 14 was read in the light of the earlier entry in the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1953 and the mischief that had arisen under the narrower phraseology of the old entry. The addition of the words "or outside" in the 1959 Act was held to enlarge the exemption beyond consumption merely in or immediately outside the establishment. A construction confining "outside" to the immediate vicinity would make the added words redundant and defeat the legislative object of relieving ordinary hotel sales of low-value cooked food and non-alcoholic drinks from tax.

Conclusion: The exemption applies where such food and drinks are served for consumption in or immediately outside the establishment as well as at any other place outside it; the answer was therefore in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where statutory language is deliberately expanded to cure an earlier mischief, the added words must be given their ordinary and enlarging meaning and cannot be reduced to redundancy by a narrow construction.

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