Popular parlance test excludes a motorised storage rack from furniture classification under the Bombay Sales Tax Act.

The Bombay HC applied the popular parlance and common-sense test to hold that a motorised elevator mobile copper roller storage rack was not "furniture" within entry 56 of Schedule C to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959. The entry was read as covering ordinary furniture articles such as safes, almirahs and upholstered furniture, and the surrounding words did not support a wider meaning. Because the item combined storage with substantial mechanised conveyor machinery for vertical and horizontal movement of goods, it was treated as more than a shelving rack. It was therefore outside entry 56 both before and after the 11 May 1973 amendment.

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Issues: Whether a motorised elevator mobile copper roller storage rack was covered by entry 56 of Schedule C to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, as it stood before and after the amendment of 11 May 1973.

Analysis: The descriptive words in entry 56 referred to articles of ordinary furniture such as safes, almirahs and upholstered furniture. The article in question was not a mere storage rack, but a storage rack combined with elaborate mechanised conveyor apparatus for vertical and horizontal movement of goods. Applying the popular parlance and common-sense test, the article could not be treated as furniture. The surrounding words in the entry also did not support a wider construction. Earlier decisions on ordinary shelving racks were distinguished because the present article contained substantial machinery and served not merely a storage function but also a conveying function.

Conclusion: The article was not covered by entry 56 of Schedule C, either before or after the amendment effective from 11 May 1973, and was not taxable as furniture under that entry.

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