Manufacture test under trade tax law: cleaning and restoring old ornaments is not manufacture when essential identity remains unchanged.

Cleaning old ornaments and putting tanka on them does not amount to manufacture or processing under Section 2(e-l) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948. The definition of manufacture covers activities that produce a commercially different and distinct article, but the decisive test is whether the activity changes the essential character or identity of the goods. Mere cleaning or restoration leaves the ornaments unchanged in substance, so the activity falls outside manufacture. The revision was allowed and the Tribunal's view treating the activity as manufacture was set aside, in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether cleaning and putting tanka on old ornaments amounts to manufacture or processing within the meaning of Section 2(e-l) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948.

Analysis: The definition of manufacture under Section 2(e-l) covers activities such as producing, making, altering, ornamenting, finishing, processing, treating, or adapting goods. The decisive test is whether the activity brings about a change in the character or nature of the goods so that a commercially different and distinct article emerges. Cleaning old ornaments and putting tanka on them does not change their essential character or identity; the ornaments remain the same goods.

Conclusion: The activity does not amount to manufacture or processing under Section 2(e-l) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 and is in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The revision was allowed and the Tribunal's view treating the activity as manufacture was set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: An activity amounts to manufacture only if it results in a commercially different and distinct article with a change in essential identity; mere cleaning or restoration of an existing article does not satisfy that test.

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