Common parlance test for oil-seeds excludes cocoanuts, groundnut kernel and jira from concessional tax treatment.

An undefined taxing entry for "oil-seeds" must be construed in its common parlance sense, meaning an article ordinarily understood as a seed principally used for oil extraction. The mere fact that oil can be extracted from a product does not make it an oil-seed. Applying that test, cocoanuts, groundnut kernel and jira were treated as a fruit, a bean and a spice respectively, not as oil-seeds. The concessional tax rate applicable to oil-seeds was therefore unavailable to those commodities.

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Issues: Whether cocoanuts, groundnut kernel and jira are oil-seeds falling within item No. 3 of Part II of Schedule I to the Act, and therefore taxable at the concessional rate applicable to oil-seeds.

Analysis: The expression "oil-seeds" was not defined in the Act and was therefore required to be understood in its popular sense, namely, the sense in which persons conversant with the subject would understand it. The governing test was not whether oil could in fact be extracted from the article, but whether in common parlance the article was known as an oil-seed principally used for extraction of oil. On that standard, cocoanut is a fruit and groundnut is commonly understood as a bean rather than an oil-seed, while jira is used as a spice and only very rarely for oil extraction. Articles capable of yielding oil do not for that reason alone become oil-seeds.

Conclusion: Cocoanuts, groundnut kernel and jira are not oil-seeds within item No. 3 of Part II of Schedule I to the Act, and the concessional rate of tax was not available.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing entry uses an undefined commodity description, it must be construed according to its common parlance meaning, and an article is not an oil-seed merely because oil can be extracted from it unless it is ordinarily understood as a seed principally used for extraction of oil.

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