Goods classification turned on the meaning of machinery, and hair clippers were held taxable under the relevant notification.

Hair clippers were not treated as "hardware" or "mill-stores" under the 5 April 1961 notification because they lacked the common character required for that category. They were, however, held to fall within "machinery" under the 1 October 1965 notification, since machinery was read in its generic sense to include appliances and instruments that transmit and transform force. As no other notification was shown to govern the goods, the machinery entry applied and tax became payable at the rate under that notification.

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Issues: (i) Whether hair clippers were classifiable as hardware or mill-stores under the 5th April, 1961 notification, or were unclassified items; (ii) whether hair clippers were taxable as machinery under the 1st October, 1965 notification at the applicable rate.

Issue (i): Whether hair clippers were classifiable as hardware or mill-stores under the 5th April, 1961 notification, or were unclassified items.

Analysis: The expression "mill-stores and hardware" was treated as covering articles having something in common with those categories. Hair clippers were not shown to share any such common character with mill-stores, and therefore could not be brought within the hardware category under the notification.

Conclusion: Hair clippers were not hardware or mill-stores under the 5th April, 1961 notification.

Issue (ii): Whether hair clippers were taxable as machinery under the 1st October, 1965 notification at the applicable rate.

Analysis: The notification under section 3-A of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 covered machinery and spare parts not taxable under any other notification. Machinery was understood in its generic sense as including appliances and instruments by which force is transmitted and transformed from one point to another. Hair clippers answered that description and no other notification was shown to govern them. The common parlance objection was rejected for want of supporting material.

Conclusion: Hair clippers fell within machinery under the 1st October, 1965 notification and were taxable accordingly.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by excluding hair clippers from hardware and bringing them within the machinery notification, resulting in liability to tax at the rate applicable under that notification.

Ratio Decidendi: A goods classification entry for "machinery" may extend to ordinary mechanical instruments that transmit force, and where no other notification applies, such goods fall within the machinery notification under section 3-A of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948.

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