Undefined statutory terms take their ordinary meaning; pisciculture is excluded from agricultural electricity tariff benefits.

Where a tariff notification grants free or concessional electricity to agricultural consumers and "agriculture" is undefined, the term must be read in its ordinary, natural and contextual sense. Applying that approach, the SC held that agriculture refers to traditional land-based cultivation and cannot be stretched to include fish farming merely because it is land-related. Pisciculture was treated as a distinct aquaculture activity, not agriculture, and definitions in other statutes were held irrelevant where they served different purposes and were not in pari materia. The appellants were therefore not entitled to the agricultural electricity tariff.

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Issues: Whether pisciculture is agriculture for the purpose of the tariff notification granting free or concessional electricity to agricultural consumers.

Analysis: The expression "agriculture" was not defined in the statute, so it had to be understood in its natural, ordinary and popular sense. The Court applied the settled rule that words not defined in a statute are construed according to common parlance and the context of the enactment. It relied on the principles stated in the earlier decision on the meaning of agriculture, which emphasised that agriculture is primarily cultivation of the land and that extensions beyond land-based cultivation cannot be assumed merely because an activity is connected with land. The tariff scheme was intended for farmers in the traditional sense, and the notification removed charges for agricultural supply to that class. Fish farming is a branch of aquaculture, a commercial activity distinct from agriculture, and fish are not livestock in the relevant sense. Definitions in other statutes were held not to control the meaning of agriculture in this context, especially where those enactments were not in pari materia and used extended definitions for different purposes.

Conclusion: Pisciculture is not agriculture, and the appellants were not entitled to the benefit of the agricultural electricity tariff.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statutory term is undefined, it must be construed in its ordinary and contextual sense, and activities of aquaculture or pisciculture do not fall within "agriculture" unless the statute clearly so provides.

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