Trade parlance classification of scalp vein needle sets barred seizure and penalty under the sales tax schedule entry.

Scalp vein needle sets were held not to fall within item 24(i) of Part A of Schedule IV as drugs or medicines because the taxing entry was not a referential provision incorporating the definition in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The expression therefore had to be understood in ordinary commercial parlance, and the record did not show that such needle sets are treated in trade as drugs or medicines. As the goods were outside the schedule entry, transportation without a sales tax permit was not unauthorised, and the seizure, penalty notice, and penalty order lacked legal foundation.

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Issues: Whether scalp vein needle sets fall within item 24(i) of Part A of Schedule IV to the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 as drugs and medicines, and whether the seizure and penalty proceedings based on absence of permit were valid.

Analysis: Item 24(i) was not a referential provision incorporating the definition of "drug" in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, so the expression had to be understood in its ordinary or trade parlance sense. The material on record did not show that scalp vein needle sets are understood in common trade as drugs or medicines. An instrument used to inject saline or medicine into the body is not, in ordinary understanding, itself a drug. Since the goods were not covered by the taxing entry, transportation without a sales tax permit was not unauthorised. The consequent seizure and penalty action therefore lacked legal foundation.

Conclusion: Scalp vein needle sets are not drugs within item 24(i) of Part A of Schedule IV to the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994, and the seizure, penalty notice, and penalty order were invalid.

Final Conclusion: The applicants succeeded in establishing that the goods were outside the specified schedule entry, with the result that the confiscatory and penal actions could not be sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing entry uses ordinary commercial expressions without adopting a statutory definition, the goods must be classified according to trade or common parlance, and an instrument used for administering treatment is not, without more, a drug or medicine.

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