Specific scheduled entry prevails over residuary tax rate for paving bricks under Karnataka VAT law.

Paving bricks were treated as covered by the specific entry for "all kinds of bricks" in the Third Schedule to the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, so the residuary rate could not be applied. The High Court held that the Commissioner's clarification on cement hollow or solid blocks did not displace the scheduled treatment of paving bricks, which remained a species of bricks used on the ground. Reassessment orders applying the higher residuary tax rate were quashed, and the clarification was held inapplicable to the petitioners' goods.

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Issues: Whether paving bricks manufactured and sold by the petitioners fall within entry 2 of the Third Schedule to the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 as "all kinds of bricks", and whether the reassessment orders treating them as taxable at the residuary rate could be sustained.

Analysis: Entry 2 of the Third Schedule was treated as an exhaustive entry covering all kinds of bricks. The clarification issued by the Commissioner concerned cement hollow or solid blocks of specified sizes and did not, on its own terms, displace the treatment of paving bricks as bricks falling within the scheduled entry. The reassessment authority had relied on that clarification to apply the higher residuary rate under section 4(1)(b), but the Court found that the subject goods were a species of bricks used on the ground and were covered by the specific scheduled entry. In these circumstances, the writ petition was entertained despite the availability of an appellate remedy, as the impugned reassessment was found to rest on a interpretation of the schedule and an unwarranted resort to the residuary provision.

Conclusion: The paving bricks were held to be covered by entry 2 of the Third Schedule and liable only to tax at 4%; the reassessment orders applying 12.5% were quashed, and the clarification was held inapplicable to the petitioners' paving bricks.

Final Conclusion: The petitioners succeeded, and the disputed assessment for the relevant years stood set aside in favour of taxation under the specific scheduled entry rather than the residuary rate.

Ratio Decidendi: Where goods are reasonably covered by a specific exhaustive scheduled entry, the taxing authority cannot shift them to a residuary entry by an expansive clarification or erroneous reassessment.

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