Cooked food exemption interpreted broadly: pizza and sandwich were treated as exempt under the earlier notification.

The Rajasthan HC analysed whether pizza and sandwich fall within "cooked food" under an exemption notification issued under the Rajasthan Value Added Tax Act, 2003. It held that the revenue had not produced expert, technical, scientific, or survey evidence to show that those items were excluded from the exempt category, and it rejected reliance on unsupported assumptions and dictionary meanings. The Court also treated the later notifications of 14.07.2014 and 09.03.2015, which expressly included pizza and sandwich, as a valid aid to interpret the earlier notification where its language was capable of more than one meaning. On that basis, pizza and sandwich were treated as cooked food covered by the exemption.

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Issues: Whether pizza and sandwich fall within the expression "cooked food" under the exemption notification dated 09.03.2010 and whether the later notifications dated 14.07.2014 and 09.03.2015 may be used to interpret the earlier exemption.

Analysis: The classification dispute arose under the Rajasthan Value Added Tax Act, 2003, where the exemption notification granted relief on sale of food cooked by the dealer and served in restaurants and hotels below three-star category. The Court found that the revenue had not produced expert, technical, scientific, or survey evidence to support the claim that pizza and sandwich were not cooked food, and it rejected the reliance on unsupported assumptions and dictionary material. It held that the conclusions of the lower authorities were perverse because they treated irrelevant features as decisive and failed to discharge the burden of proving exclusion from the exemption. The Court further held that the later notifications expressly including pizza, sandwich, and similar items in the cooked-food category showed the legislative understanding of such items and could properly be used as an aid to interpret the earlier notification where the earlier language was capable of more than one meaning.

Conclusion: Pizza and sandwich were held to be cooked food covered by the exemption notification dated 09.03.2010, and the assessee was entitled to relief.

Ratio Decidendi: In classification disputes under a taxing exemption notification, the burden lies on the revenue to establish exclusion from the notified category, and subsequent legislation may be used to resolve ambiguity in an earlier exemption where the later enactment clarifies the legislative understanding of the same commodity.

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