Common parlance test for textiles: coated waterproof cloth is not a textile when processing creates a distinct commercial product.

Waterproof cloth, rexine and similar cloth-based goods coated with rubber or polyvinyl chloride were held not to be "textiles" in their ordinary commercial sense under item 4 of the Third Schedule to the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959. The court applied a common parlance test and rejected importing definitions from other enactments, holding that once processing gives the goods a distinct use, value and identity, with the coating becoming the significant feature rather than the base cloth, they cease to remain textiles. As a result, the exemption for textiles did not apply.

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Issues: Whether waterproof cloth, rexine and similar cloth-base articles coated with rubber or polyvinyl chloride are "textiles" falling within item 4 of the Third Schedule to the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959 and therefore exempt from tax.

Analysis: Item 4 covers all varieties of textiles in their ordinary and popular sense. The expression is not to be enlarged by importing definitions from other enactments. The proper approach is to see whether the goods, after processing, continue to be cloth or textile in commercial parlance, or whether the processing has converted them into distinct commercial articles with a different use, value and character. The coating of cloth with rubber or polyvinyl chloride was found to give the goods waterproofing and to make the coating, not the base cloth, the significant feature of the product. The processed articles were treated in trade as different from cloth and were intended for different use.

Conclusion: Waterproof cloth and similar coated articles are not textiles within item 4 of the Third Schedule and are not exempt from tax.

Final Conclusion: The exemption claim failed, and the State's challenge to the Tribunal's view succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Where processing alters cloth into a distinct commercial product whose use, value and identity lie in the coating rather than the base fabric, the article is not a textile in its ordinary commercial sense for the purposes of a sales tax exemption entry.

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