Read-down of proviso preserves concessional tax benefit where literal compliance would frustrate section 5A's purpose.

A proviso must be construed to support, not defeat, the substantive purpose of the main provision, and a literal reading that creates irrational discrimination or impossible compliance may be read down to preserve legislative intent. On that approach, section 5A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act was treated as granting concessional tax treatment to registered manufacturers using industrial inputs for goods sold within the State, even where tax on the inputs had been paid at the purchase point. The first proviso was therefore read down to operate only where its condition could actually be complied with, and the concessional benefit under section 5A remained available.

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Issues: Whether the first proviso to section 5A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 should be read down so as to operate only where compliance is possible, and whether the petitioner was entitled to the concessional benefit under section 5A despite purchasing inputs on which tax was paid at the purchase point.

Analysis: Section 5A was intended to extend a concessional tax treatment to registered manufacturers using industrial inputs in the manufacture of goods for sale within the State. The proviso, if read literally, would deny the benefit where the tax on inputs was paid directly at the purchase point rather than through a selling dealer, even though the State had received the tax. Such an interpretation would place similarly situated manufacturers differently without a rational basis and would make the proviso inconsistent with the purpose of the main provision. The correct approach was to construe the proviso so that it functions only where its condition can in fact be complied with, and not to let it frustrate the substantive benefit enacted by section 5A.

Conclusion: The first proviso to section 5A was required to be read down and treated as operative only where compliance is possible. The petitioner was entitled to the benefit of section 5A in accordance with that interpretation.

Ratio Decidendi: A proviso must be construed so as to support, and not defeat, the substantive object of the main provision, and where a literal reading creates irrational discrimination or impossible compliance, it may be read down to preserve the legislative intent.

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