Commercial parlance test for excise classification applied to shikakai powder, which was treated as a distinct manufactured commodity.

Shikakai powder was treated as a distinct commodity from soapnut powder because the goods differed in botanical identity, market recognition, and commercial understanding, so exemption available to soapnut could not be extended merely on similarity of use. Conversion of shikakai pods into powder was held to amount to manufacture because crushing and processing produced a new and distinct marketable product, making it excisable under the hair-preparation tariff entry. The ruling turns on commercial parlance for classification and the settled test that a process becomes manufacture when it yields a new commodity.

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Issues: (i) Whether shikakai powder is the same commodity as soapnut powder and entitled to the exemption claimed; (ii) Whether conversion of shikakai pods into powder amounts to manufacture and makes the product excisable under Chapter 33.05.

Issue (i): Whether shikakai powder is the same commodity as soapnut powder and entitled to the exemption claimed.

Analysis: The commodities were held to be different in botanical identity, market recognition, and commercial understanding. The Court applied the test of how the goods are understood in the market and rejected the argument that resemblance in use or dictionary meaning makes them the same article. The exemption available to soapnut could not be extended to shikakai powder merely on the basis of similarity in use.

Conclusion: The issue was decided against the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether conversion of shikakai pods into powder amounts to manufacture and makes the product excisable under Chapter 33.05.

Analysis: The Court applied the settled principle that every process is not manufacture, but a process resulting in a new and distinct commercial commodity does amount to manufacture. By crushing and converting the pods into powder for sale, the original commodity was transformed into a distinct marketable product. On that basis, the product fell within the tariff entry for preparations for use on the hair.

Conclusion: The issue was decided against the assessee and in favour of the Revenue.

Final Conclusion: Shikakai powder was held to be a distinct excisable commodity classifiable under the relevant tariff entry, and the writ appeal succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: A process amounts to manufacture when it results in a new and distinct commodity in commercial parlance, and tariff classification depends on the market identity of the product rather than on superficial similarity in use.

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