Common parlance test controls tax classification: khair wood was held not to be timber in ordinary market understanding.

Classification of goods in a taxing entry turns on the common parlance or popular sense test, meaning the word must be understood in ordinary commercial usage rather than by technical or dictionary definitions. Applying that test, khair wood was held to be a distinct commercial commodity used in trade as raw material for katha and not understood in the market as timber. Its possible use for construction, or a broader definition of timber under another statutory regime, was insufficient to alter that ordinary market understanding. Khair wood therefore falls outside the timber entry and is taxable accordingly.

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Issues: Whether khair wood sold by the dealer is timber and taxable as such for purposes of the relevant sales tax entry.

Analysis: The governing test was the common parlance or popular sense test, under which words in a taxing entry are understood as used in ordinary commercial understanding and not by reference to technical or dictionary meanings alone. On the facts, khair wood was found to be a different commercial commodity from timber, since it was treated in trade as raw material for katha and not as timber in the ordinary market sense. The fact that khair wood could also be used for construction, or that a forest rule defined timber broadly for a different statutory purpose, was held insufficient to establish that it was timber in common parlance. There was no evidence showing that khair wood was understood in the market as timber.

Conclusion: Khair wood is not timber for the purposes of the relevant tax entry and is taxable accordingly against the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Classification of goods in a taxing entry depends on their ordinary commercial or popular meaning, and a product is not brought within the entry merely because it has some alternative use or is so described under a different statutory regime.

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