Common parlance test excludes spark plugs from electrical goods classification under sales tax entry.

Taxing entries must be construed in their ordinary commercial sense, as understood in common parlance and trade usage. Applying that test, spark plugs used in internal combustion engines were held not to be electrical goods merely because they function within a vehicle's electrical system. The article noted that analogous items such as batteries and welding electrodes had also been treated as outside that class, and a later separate entry for spark plugs was mentioned only as contextual support. Spark plugs were therefore treated as general goods, and the assessee's position was accepted.

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Issues: Whether spark plugs fall within entry 38 of the First Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 as electrical goods.

Analysis: Taxing entries are to be construed according to the words used and the sense in which those words are understood in common parlance and commercial usage. Spark plugs are used in internal combustion engines to generate ignition through electrodes encased in insulating material; they are not ordinarily understood as electrical goods merely because they form part of the electrical system of a vehicle. The fact that similar articles such as batteries and welding electrodes have been treated as not being electrical goods supports the same approach. The later legislative insertion of a separate entry for spark plugs was noted, but the decision was not founded on that subsequent amendment.

Conclusion: Spark plugs do not fall within entry 38 as electrical goods and are liable to be treated as general goods. The finding is in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The revision cases succeed, and the assessment position treating spark plugs as covered by entry 38 is set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: A taxing entry must be construed in its ordinary commercial sense, and an article that is not understood in common parlance as falling within the described class cannot be taxed under that entry merely because of its functional connection with the subject matter.

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