Commercial parlance test excludes automobile toughened safety glass from a glassware exemption under sales tax notification.

A sales tax exemption notification using the expression "glass and glasswares including optical glass in all its forms" was held to apply in common and commercial parlance, not by technical composition. Automobile toughened safety glass, including wind screens and related screens, was found to have a distinct commercial identity from ordinary glassware because it is manufactured into a specialised motor vehicle part. It was therefore not covered by the notification, and the dealer could not claim purchase of raw material and packing material without tax.

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Issues: Whether automobile toughened safety glass, including wind screens, door screens, side screens and back screens, falls within the expression "glass and glasswares including optical glass in all its forms" in the notification issued under section 4-B of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, so as to entitle the dealer to purchase raw material and packing material without payment of tax.

Analysis: The expression in the notification had to be construed in its popular and commercial sense, as sales tax entries are not to be interpreted by scientific or technical meaning. The decisive test was how the commodity is understood by persons dealing in or using it, and whether it retains the commercial identity of glassware. Automobile toughened safety glass is manufactured from glass sheets by cutting, shaping, polishing, heating and sudden cooling, by which it acquires changed physical properties and a distinct commercial character. In ordinary trade parlance, a merchant dealing in glassware would not regard automobile screens or toughened safety glass parts as glassware, and consumers would not ask for them from a glassware shop. The earlier judicial interpretation of similar expressions also showed that automobile screens are motor vehicle parts and not glassware.

Conclusion: Automobile toughened safety glass, including wind screens and related screens, is not "glass and glasswares" within the relevant notification. The dealer was not entitled to the claimed tax exemption on raw materials and packing materials.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a sales tax exemption notification uses a generic commodity description, the entry must be applied according to common and commercial parlance, and a fabricated article that acquires a distinct commercial identity from the base material does not fall within the description merely because it is made from that material.

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