Common parlance meaning of textiles brings damping hose cloth within the sales tax exemption entry.

The term "textiles" in item 4 of the Third Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 is to be understood in its ordinary and popular sense, not in a narrow technical sense. A woven product that is fabric-like and made by binding threads into cloth may fall within the entry, and its industrial use does not exclude it if it remains a textile in common parlance. On that basis, damping hose cloth was treated as a woven fabric resembling cloth and was held to fall within the exemption entry. The assessee's exemption claim was therefore accepted.

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Issues: Whether damping hose cloth is "textiles" within item 4 of the Third Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 and is therefore exempt from tax.

Analysis: The expression "textiles" in the relevant entry was construed in its ordinary and popular sense as understood in common parlance, not in a narrow technical sense. Prior authority had emphasized that a woven product made by binding threads into a fabric or utility article may fall within the entry, while later authority clarified that the use to which the woven fabric is put is immaterial. Applying that approach, the material in question was found to be a woven fabric resembling cloth used for banians, and its tubular shape or industrial use for damping rollers did not take it out of the ordinary meaning of textiles.

Conclusion: Damping hose cloth falls within item 4 of the Third Schedule and is exempt as textiles; the assessee's claim was rightly allowed.

Final Conclusion: The exemption claim succeeds, and the assessment order made contrary to that view cannot stand.

Ratio Decidendi: For sales tax exemption entries using the word "textiles", the term is to be understood in its common parlance sense as a woven fabric, and its industrial use does not exclude it from the entry if it is otherwise a textile.

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