Textile exemption denied for pasted cotton-thread tape lacking weaving character under the sales tax schedule.

Cotton-thread tape made by merely pasting threads together lengthwise, without interlacing or interlocking them in a weaving process, was not "textile" under entry 4 of the Third Schedule to the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959. The Court treated weaving as the essential character of textile, while noting that it need not be limited to a traditional loom or exact warp-and-woof pattern; even so, the product had to be fabric-like and produced by a weaving process in substance. Because the tape lacked that character, it did not qualify for exemption under section 8 and the Revenue succeeded.

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Issues: Whether tape made by pasting cotton threads together lengthwise without the ordinary process of weaving is "textile" within entry 4 of the Third Schedule to the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959, so as to qualify for exemption under section 8.

Analysis: The entry specifically included tapes, but the decisive question was whether the product answered the character of textile. The Court treated weaving as the essential feature of textile, while recognising that weaving need not be confined to the traditional loom process or the exact warp-and-woof pattern. Even so, the product had to involve threads being bound together in a manner that produces a fabric-like tape. A tape made by merely pasting threads together lengthwise, without interlacing or interlocking them in a weaving process, did not satisfy that requirement.

Conclusion: The tape in question was not textile within entry 4 and was therefore not entitled to exemption under section 8. The decision was in favour of the Revenue.

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