1968 (11) TMI 94

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....aforesaid items as furniture and levied tax at the rate of one anna per rupee by virtue of Notification No. ST-905/X dated 31st March, 1956, issued under section 3-A of the U.P. Sales Tax Act. The item "furniture" is entered at serial No. 14 in the list appended to that notification. The Sales Tax Officer repelled the contention of the assessee that the items sold by it constituted hospital equipment and not furniture and was, therefore, liable to tax under section 3 of the Act at the lower rate prescribed therein. The assessee filed an appeal and the Judge (Appeals) Sales Tax allowed the appeal in respect of the turnover of operation tables only. He held that operation tables could not be described as furniture. The revision application fi....

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....he revenue that the articles in question in this case, though intended for use in a hospital, are nevertheless amenable to a comparable use in a dwelling place. It is said that they correspond, with some variations, to articles in normal use in the home and that there is nothing in their design or equipment which precludes them from being put to a domestic use. Now, there is nothing in the statement of the case or in the orders of the Sales Tax Officer, the Judge (Appeals) Sales Tax and the Judge (Revisions) Sales Tax indicating the description, design and equipment of these several articles. It was for the revenue, which justifies the application of the higher rate under the notification on the ground that the articles constitute furniture....

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....e (Revisions) to describe clearly the design and equipment of the articles in question. Had he done so, we would have received considerable assistance in deciding the question referred by him. Confining ourselves to the contention of the revenue that the description and the design of the articles do not preclude them from use as furniture, we are inclined to the view that the test on which the contention proceeds is not acceptable. The test, in our opinion, is not whether the articles are capable of being used as furniture; the test is whether they are ordinarily so used and can be accepted as such according to the general or popular notion of what furniture is. Sales tax is a liability which affects the mercantile community and the consume....