Ordinary commercial meaning governs appliance entries, excluding electrically operated machinery from the specific tax classification.

A taxing entry for domestic and commercial electrical appliances must be read in its ordinary commercial sense and limited to goods of the same genus as the illustrative items listed. A high-pressure hydraulic washing plant used for service stations, transport companies and factories was treated as machinery, not as a domestic or commercial appliance, because it did not answer that ordinary description. The later insertion of a separate entry for machinery operated by electricity reinforced that electrically driven machinery was outside the appliance entry. The washing plant therefore fell to the residuary entry rather than the specific appliance entry.

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Issues: Whether the washing plant sold by the assessee fell within entry 73(a) of Schedule C, Part II to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 as a domestic or commercial electrical appliance, or whether it was outside that entry and liable under the residuary entry 102.

Analysis: Entry 73(a) covered domestic and commercial electrical appliances of the same genus as the illustrative items specified in the entry, namely ordinary gadgets and equipment of day-to-day domestic or commercial use. The expression "appliances" was construed in its ordinary and commercial sense, and not as embracing every machine operated by electricity. On the description and technical features of the goods, the washing plant was found to be a high-pressure hydraulic washer used for service stations, transport companies and factories, with the character of machinery and not of a domestic or commercial appliance. The subsequent insertion of entry 44A, specifically referring to machinery operated by electricity, also supported the conclusion that such goods were not covered by entry 73(a).

Conclusion: The washing plant was not covered by entry 73(a) and fell under the residuary entry 102. The question was answered in the negative and in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A taxing entry for domestic and commercial electrical appliances must be construed according to its ordinary commercial meaning and cannot be extended to all electrically operated machinery; goods not fitting the genus of the enumerated appliances fall to the residuary entry.

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