Electricity duty classification for mine-head premises: Item (1) prevails where premises also qualify as a factory.

Electrical energy consumed in mine-head premises was chargeable under Item (1) of section 3 of the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Duty Act, 1949, because that item covered premises used for business, trade or commercial purposes and expressly included mines to which the Mines Act applied. Although the same premises also answered the description of a factory under Item (2), the statute was read as classifying duty by the applicable category of premises, and where one premises fell within both descriptions, the higher rate under Item (1) prevailed. Duty was therefore payable under Item (1), not Item (2), and the contrary view was rejected.

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Issues: Whether electrical energy consumed in premises at a mine-head, where the Mines Act applied and the premises also answered the description of a factory under the Electricity Duty Act, was chargeable to duty under Item (1) or Item (2) of the Table to section 3 of the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Duty Act, 1949.

Analysis: Section 3 imposed duty at different rates depending upon the purpose for which electrical energy was consumed. Item (1) covered premises used for business, trade or commercial purposes and, by Explanation (b), expressly included premises used for the purposes of mines to which the Mines Act applied. Item (2) applied to premises of a factory, and Explanation (c) gave factory an inclusive meaning. Reading the provision as a whole, the higher rate under Item (1) governed premises falling within both descriptions, because the Act treated the relevant item as determined by the applicable category of premises and the highest chargeable rate prevailed where the same premises answered more than one description.

Conclusion: Duty on electrical energy consumed in the mine-head premises was payable under Item (1), not Item (2), and the High Court's view to the contrary was unsustainable.

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