Popular parlance test for vegetables allowed green ginger to qualify for sales tax exemption.

Green ginger was held to fall within, or at least be capable of falling within, the exempted entry for vegetables in item 6 of the Schedule to the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941. The Court applied the popular and common parlance test rather than a botanical or dictionary meaning, relying on whether the article is ordinarily produced in a kitchen garden or farm and used for the table. The 1954 amendment adding the Bengali expressions "sabji, tarkari or sak" did not narrow the exemption to exclude green ginger, and any ambiguity in the fiscal exemption was resolved in favour of the claimant.

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Issues: Whether green ginger falls within the exempted entry for vegetables in item 6 of the Schedule to the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941.

Analysis: The entry had to be construed in its popular and common parlance sense, not in a merely botanical or dictionary sense. The earlier authorities on the meaning of "vegetable" applied the test whether the article is ordinarily produced in a kitchen garden or farm and whether it is used for the table. The words added by the 1954 amendment, namely "sabji, tarkari or sak", were held not to narrow the entry so as to exclude green ginger. On the material before the Court, the Bengali expressions used in the amended entry were capable of including green ginger, and any doubt in the scope of a fiscal exemption had to be resolved in favour of the claimant.

Conclusion: Green ginger is included, or at least capable of being included, within item 6 of the Schedule and is exempt from sales tax.

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