Common parlance classification ruled industrial hoists were machinery, not lifts, under the sales tax entry.

Industrial hoists and a high raised platform were not classifiable as "lifts" under entry 133 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act because the Act did not define the commodity and classification had to follow common parlance. In ordinary usage, lifts are building installations for moving persons or goods between floors, whereas these hoists were industrial devices used within premises to raise workers and materials. That functional distinction supported treatment as machinery under item 81. The later inclusion of hoists in entry 133 also indicated that, at the material time, they were outside that entry.

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Issues: Whether industrial hoists and high raised platform were classifiable as "lifts" under entry 133 of the First Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, or as "machinery" under item 81, applying the common parlance test to an undefined commodity.

Analysis: The relevant expressions were not defined in the Act, so classification had to be determined by their understood meaning in common parlance. In common parlance, lifts denote mechanical contrivances ordinarily used in buildings for carrying passengers or goods between floors, while the hoists in question were industrial devices used for raising workers and goods to different levels and for movement within industrial premises. The Tribunal's view that such goods fell within machinery was supported by the functional distinction between building lifts and industrial hoists. The later inclusion of hoists in entry 133 also indicated that, at the material time, hoists were not intended to be included within that entry.

Conclusion: Hoists and the connected equipment were not covered by entry 133 as lifts and were correctly treated as machinery; the revision petitions filed by the Revenue failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a commodity is not defined in the taxing statute, its classification must be based on its ordinary/common parlance meaning, and a later amendment including that commodity in a taxing entry may indicate that it was outside the entry earlier.

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