Common parlance test governs sales tax classification of nutritive drinks like Bournvita under food-stuff entries.

For sales tax classification under an entry covering "food-stuff and food provisions of all kinds," the controlling test is common parlance. An article falls within that entry only if it is ordinarily regarded as food or as something offered to satisfy hunger. Bournvita, though nutritive and taken as a drink with milk, is not ordinarily consumed as food and is not a substitute for food. It therefore does not fall within entry 6 of Schedule III to the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969, and is classified under the residuary entry 13.

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Issues: Whether Bournvita is covered by the expression "food-stuff and food provisions of all kinds" in entry 6 of Schedule III to the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969, or falls under the residuary entry 13 of Schedule III.

Analysis: The classification depended on the meaning of the words "food-stuff" and "food provisions" as understood in common parlance. Applying that test, the article had to be one normally eaten as food or offered to a hungry person as food. Bournvita was found to be a nutritive food drink taken with milk and not a substitute for food. It supplied nourishment, but common people did not ordinarily take it as food for satisfying hunger. The reasoning in the earlier decision concerning a different product was applied because the same common-parlance approach governed the present classification.

Conclusion: Bournvita is not food-stuff or food provision and is therefore not covered by entry 6 of Schedule III. It falls under the residuary entry 13 of Schedule III. The answer is against the State and in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: For classification under a sales tax entry describing food-stuff or food provisions, the controlling test is the meaning attributed to the article in common parlance, and a product taken only as a nutritive drink with milk and not ordinarily consumed as food does not fall within such an entry.

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