Functional utility test governs sales tax classification of a fluorescent tube sold without choke and starter.

A goods classification under a sales tax entry using the word "appliance" depends on functional utility, meaning the article must be treated as a working whole rather than as separate materials or parts. A fluorescent tube sold without a choke and starter falls within entry 52 only if, as sold, it can perform its intended lighting function. If those accessories are essential to obtain fluorescent light, the tube without them is not covered by the entry; if they are not essential, it remains within the entry.

---

---

Issues: Whether a fluorescent tube sold without a choke and starter falls within entry 52 of Schedule B to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1953 as a domestic electrical appliance.

Analysis: The expression "appliance" was construed as an apparatus, device or instrument serving as a means to an end, and not as the mere sum of its materials or component parts. The decisive test was functional utility: an article can be treated as an appliance only if, as sold, it is capable of rendering the intended service. On the material before it, the Court proceeded on the footing that a choke and starter may be essential to the working of a fluorescent tube, but found that there was no clear finding on that factual aspect. The question was therefore answered on an alternative basis depending on whether those parts were essential to the tube's functioning.

Conclusion: If the choke and starter are essential for obtaining fluorescent light, the tube without them is not covered by entry 52; if they are not essential, the tube remains within the entry even when sold without them.

Final Conclusion: Classification under the sales tax entry turned on whether the tube, as sold, could perform its intended lighting function without the stated accessories.

Ratio Decidendi: For a goods entry using the word "appliance", the article must be considered as a functional whole, and it falls within the entry only if, in the form sold, it can effectively render the intended service.

---