Ordinary commercial meaning of "silver bullion" excludes manufactured silver articles under a customs notification.

An undefined fiscal expression in a customs notification must be given its ordinary and commercial meaning as understood in trade. On that approach, "silver bullion" was construed as silver in bars, ingots or comparable masses, and not as manufactured or finished silver articles such as plates, kadas, statues or scrap. The Court accepted trade understanding as decisive and rejected reliance on the Statement of Objects and Reasons to enlarge the term contrary to its ordinary sense. The articles therefore did not fall within specified goods under the notification, and confiscation and penalties based on that footing were unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether silver articles such as plates, kadas, statues and scrap silver fell within the expression "silver bullion" in the notification issued under the Customs Act, 1962, so as to attract the provisions relating to specified goods, confiscation and penalty.

Analysis: The expression "silver bullion" was not defined in either the Customs Act or the notification, and therefore had to be understood in its ordinary and commercial sense. The term was construed as silver in the form of bars, ingots or comparable masses, and not as manufactured or finished silver articles. The evidence showed that persons engaged in the silver trade did not regard the articles in question as bullion, while the respondents led no convincing evidence to the contrary. The Court also declined to expand the expression by relying on the Statement of Objects and Reasons, holding that such material may explain the background of legislation but cannot be used to give a term an artificial meaning contrary to its ordinary sense.

Conclusion: The silver articles in question were not "silver bullion" and therefore did not constitute specified goods under the notification.

Final Conclusion: The confiscation and penalties based on the footing that the articles were silver bullion were unsustainable, and the appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: An undefined fiscal expression in a customs notification must be construed in its ordinary and commercial sense as understood in trade, and cannot be enlarged by resort to the Statement of Objects and Reasons to cover manufactured articles that do not answer that commercial description.

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