Declared use of goods matters: dynamo lamps treated as accessories, so penalty followed for misuse of form declaration.

Goods purchased under a declaration for use as component parts attract penalty if, in substance, they are only accessories and are not used for the declared purpose. The court applied the test of whether the article is an integral part of the cycle or merely a functional accessory, and noted that a cycle can be commercially sold and used without a dynamo lamp. On that reasoning, dynamo lamps were not component parts of cycles. Their purchase under form XVII for a different declared use was therefore a contravention, and penalty under section 23 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 was held to be attracted.

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Issues: Whether dynamo lamps purchased under form XVII declaration could be treated as component parts of cycles, and whether penalty was leviable for using them otherwise than for the declared purpose.

Analysis: The relevant test was whether the article was an integral component of the cycle or merely an accessory with functional utility. The Court preferred the view that a cycle can be commercially sold and used without a dynamo lamp, and that the lamp serves only a night-use function. On that basis, dynamo lamps were held not to be component parts of cycles. Once the goods purchased under form XVII declaration were not used as component parts as declared, the assessee committed a contravention attracting the penal provision. The fact that the lamps were sold along with the cycles did not avoid liability, because the decisive question was whether the goods were used for the declared purpose.

Conclusion: The dynamo lamps were not component parts of the cycles. Penalty under section 23 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 was rightly attracted for contravention of the declaration and the Revenue's revisions succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: An article purchased under a declaration to be used as a component part attracts penalty if, in substance, it is only an accessory and is not used for the declared purpose.

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