Commercial meaning of "mill-stores and hardware" excludes G.I. pipes from hardware classification under the notification.

G.I. pipes were not covered by the notification entry "mill-stores and hardware" dated 5 April 1961 because they lacked the commercial characteristics common to goods ordinarily understood as hardware. The applicable test required an item to share something in common with mill-stores or hardware, and hardware was treated as articles made of base metal such as nuts, bolts, hinges, rivets and latches. Applying that construction, the Court found G.I. pipes did not answer the description of hardware and were therefore assessable as an unclassified item rather than at the hardware rate.

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Issues: Whether G.I. pipes for the relevant assessment year were taxable as hardware at 3 per cent under the notification dated 5th April, 1961, or as an unclassified item at 2 per cent.

Analysis: The applicable entry was the expression "mill-stores and hardware" in the notification dated 5th April, 1961. The Court applied the earlier Full Bench test that items falling within that expression must have something in common with mill-stores or hardware, and that hardware ordinarily refers to articles made of base metal such as nuts, bolts, hinges, rivets and latches. On that test, G.I. pipes had nothing in common with mill-stores and did not answer the description of hardware within the notification.

Conclusion: G.I. pipes were not taxable as hardware under the notification dated 5th April, 1961, and the answer was in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: An article falls within the entry "mill-stores and hardware" only if it shares the common characteristics of goods comprehended by that entry in commercial understanding; where it does not, it cannot be taxed as hardware under the notification.

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