1978 (3) TMI 202

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....ing to the period from 31st July, 1964, to 31st March, 1966, to the High Court for its opinion, namely: "Whether, under the facts and circumstances of the case, the drying of tendu leaves and packing in bundles does not involve any manufacturing process?" 2.. The assessee, M/s. Jugalkishore Badriprasad, Bankatnagar, is a dealer in tendu leaves. He has been purchasing tendu leaves from the State Government in the forest, as well as from the cultivators, and selling the same after drying and packing them in bundles. 3.. The short question before the Board of Revenue was whether the process of drying of tendu leaves and packing them in bundles, comes within the definition of "manufacture " as contained in section 2(j) of the M.P. G....

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....No. 3730-2512-V-ST-68 dated 19th October, 1968.   4.. In dealing with the question the Board of Revenue observed: "Manufacturing process is involved only if the original commodity, after undergoing the said process, changes its character and use." Applying that test, the Board of Revenue held that the drying of tendu leaves and packing them in bundles does not change the intrinsic character of the commodity and they still remain tendu leaves. There is no manufacturing process involved and, therefore, the assessee could not be treated as a manufacturer. In view of rule 2-A of the M.P. General Sales Tax Rules, 1959, which is clarificatory in nature, the matter is now beyond the ken of controversy. What was implicit in the defini....

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....Bombay High Court decision in Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Bombay Mercantile Corporation[1975] 35 S.T.C. 505., where hand blending of lubricating oil was held not to be a process of manufacture. In Sudhir Ch. Mukherjee v. Additional Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, West Bengal(2), the Calcutta High Court has referred to several decisions of the Supreme Court on the point, viz., Union of India v. Delhi Cloth and General MillsA.I.R. 1963 S.C. 791., South Bihar Sugar Mills Ltd. v. Union of India A.I.R. 1968 S.C. 922., Devi Dass Gopal Krishnan v. State of Punjab[1967] 20 S.T.C. 430 (S.C.). and Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Dr. Sukh Deo[1969] 23 S.T.C. 385 (S.C.)., and observed: "Thus on a conspectus of all the aforesaid decisions the following....