Common parlance test governs excise classification of composite insulators; assessments set aside and remitted for fresh determination.

Classification of electric insulators under Item 23B depended on whether the undefined tariff term "porcelainware" bore a common parlance meaning that covered the porcelain component of the composite goods. The Court held that market understanding by manufacturers and consumers had to be established on evidence, and that the excise authorities should first examine that material. Existing assessments on the finished insulators were therefore unsustainable and were set aside, with the matter remitted for fresh assessment in accordance with law and reconsideration of any separate duty liability of the porcelain parts.

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Issues: Whether electric insulators made partly of porcelain and partly of metal were assessable to excise duty under Item No. 23B of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, and whether the porcelain parts could be treated as separate goods liable to assessment under that item.

Analysis: The assessability of the porcelain component depended on the popular or common parlance meaning of the expression "porcelainware" in Item No. 23B. The Court held that this question could not be decided without evidence as to how manufacturers and consumers understood the relevant expression. Since the meaning of an undefined tariff term had to be ascertained from common usage, the matter was required to be examined first by the excise authorities. The existing assessments of the finished insulators were therefore unsustainable and had to be set aside so that the issue could be reconsidered on proper materials.

Conclusion: The assessments under Item No. 23B on the impugned electric insulators were quashed and the matter was remitted for fresh assessment in accordance with law, including reconsideration of whether the porcelain parts were independently liable to duty.

Final Conclusion: The petitioners obtained relief against the existing assessments, but the authorities were left free to make a fresh determination on the duty liability of the porcelain component after affording opportunity to the parties.

Ratio Decidendi: The meaning of an undefined tariff expression in excise classification must be determined by its popular or common parlance sense, and where that question is material the assessment cannot stand without evidence on market understanding.

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