Reading book exemption applies to a descriptive guide map, and new turnover issues cannot be raised at the Tribunal.

A guide map publication with substantial descriptive material, tourist information, routes and related content was treated as a reading book because it was meant to be read, not merely used as a map sheet, and its turnover qualified for exemption under the relevant book exemption. The Court also applied the appellate principle that a turnover item not raised before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner cannot ordinarily be entertained for the first time by the Tribunal, so the unraised item of Rs. 11,650 should not have been considered. The revision was therefore allowed in favour of the assessee on both points.

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Issues: (i) Whether a guide map publication containing descriptive material, tourist information, routes and related contents was a "reading book" eligible for exemption under Entry 22. (ii) Whether the Tribunal could entertain for the first time a turnover item not raised before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner.

Issue (i): Whether a guide map publication containing descriptive material, tourist information, routes and related contents was a "reading book" eligible for exemption under Entry 22.

Analysis: Entry 22 exempted sales of books and was later expanded to "sales of reading books including text-books". The publication in question was not a mere map sheet but contained substantial descriptive matter about the city, its history, places of interest, postal zones, bus routes and other information useful to a reader or tourist. A publication with such contents answers the description of a book meant for reading.

Conclusion: The publication was a reading book and its turnover was entitled to exemption in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the Tribunal could entertain for the first time a turnover item not raised before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner.

Analysis: The item of Rs. 11,650 had not been put in issue before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. Following the governing appellate principle applied by the Court, a point not agitated at that stage could not be raised before the Tribunal for the first time.

Conclusion: The Tribunal ought not to have considered the item of Rs. 11,650 and the assessee's challenge succeeded on this point.

Final Conclusion: The revision succeeded on both the exemption issue and the procedural issue, resulting in a partial allowance of the petition in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A publication is eligible as a "reading book" if its contents are meant to be read and provide substantive material for reading, and a new turnover item cannot ordinarily be introduced before the Tribunal for the first time when it was not raised before the lower appellate authority.

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