TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1982 (2) TMI 278
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....d in section 2(10) of the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969, and in accordingly including sale price of the above storage tanks amounting to Rs. 75,000 in the applicant's turnover of sales and in levying tax thereon?" In order to answer the questions of law referred to us by the Tribunal, a few relevant facts may be stated. The assessee is having its business at Nadiad and is dealing in light diesel oil, lubricant oil, kerosene, etc. The business was done by the assessee as an agent of M/s. Burmah Shell Company. The assessee was also working as a transport contractor and had used transport carriers known as tanker lorries for the business of transportation of lubricant oil, etc. In Samvat Year 2028, which was the period of assessment, the assessee had sold two transport carriers worth Rs. 76,001. The assessee had also purchased certain spare parts for the use as parts of those carriers which were estimated at Rs. 5,000. For the disposal of the present reference, the aforesaid facts are not very relevant. But the assessee had sold storage tanks, five in number, at Rs. 75,000. These storage tanks were used for storing the oil which was emptied in these tanks as coming from the rai....
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....ds which are statutorily defined in section 2(4)(ii), and 2(10) "business" and "dealer" respectively, it cannot be conceived, that the sale of storage tanks is business as statutorily provided in section 2(4)(ii) by a dealer as defined in section 2(10) of the Act. The Tribunal, having carefully considered the grievance of the assessee, took the view that the dealer had done the business in regard to storage tanks, and hence, whatever amount the assessee had obtained in regard to the sale of storage tanks is subject to taxation liability. Under the aforesaid circumstances, the Tribunal did not accept the appeal of the assessee, and dismissed the appeal, but referred the aforesaid questions of law to this Court. At the time of the hearing of this reference Mr. Modi, the learned Advocate, who argued the reference with ability and thoroughness invited our attention to the statutory definitions of the terms (1) "business" and (2) "dealer". "Section 2. (4) 'business' includes- (i) ............................................................... (ii) any transaction of buying, selling or supplying plant, machinery, raw materials, processing materials, packing materials, empties....
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....the definition of 'business' is rather too wide and requires to be restricted so that isolated transactions which are not closely connected with the business of a dealer are not made subject to payment of tax. The Committee also feels that the institutions and organisations which carry on activities in the nature of mere service or profession, such as banking company, non-professional services associations should not also be brought within the scope of the definition. Sub-clause (4) has, therefore, been re-drafted so as to make the intention quite clear. " When Mr. Modi invited our attention to the aforesaid report of the Select Committee, we requested Mr. Modi to satisfy us as to whether it would be proper for us to have a look at the observations made by the Select Committee before the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969, was put on the statute book. We brought to the notice of Mr. Modi that the two aforesaid statutory definitions of the terms "business" and "dealer" do not suffer from the vice of ambiguity or any apparent confusion or any of a serious type of infirmity deserving some reconsideration at our hands, and hence, we requested Mr. Modi that unless he would satisfy us that t....
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....d with any reasonable degree of certainty. And where the legislature happens to be bicameral, the second Chamber may or may not have known of such reason when it dealt with the measure.' This principle was again referred to by the Supreme Court in Express Newspapers Ltd.'s case AIR 1958 SC 578. Bbagwati, J., speaking for the court observed that there is a consensus of opinion that the circumstances under which a particular word came to be deleted from the original Bill as introduced in the Parliament and the fact of such deletion when the Act came to be passed in the final shape are not aids to the construction of the terms of the statute. He, however, added a rider: 'It is only when the terms of the statute are ambiguous or vague that resort may be had to them for the purpose of arriving at the true intention of the legislature ........................." Our attention was also invited to N. S. Bindra's "The Interpretation of Statutes", Sixth Edition, 1975, at page 401, it is observed as follows: "When exact and precise words are used, they clearly show the intention of the legislature and it is not open to the court to speculate as to what the intention of the legislature might....
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.... on business in light diesel oil, lubricant oil, kerosene, etc., as stated above. The aforesaid definition of the term "business" clearly includes any transaction of buying, selling or supplying plant .................. empties, .................., or such other goods, or waste or scrap or any of them which is ancillary or incidental to or resulting from such trade, commerce, manufacture,......................... In the facts and circumstances of the case, either diesel oil, lubricant oil or kerosene had to be stored by the assessee, and the same was obviously stored in tanks known as storage tanks. After the use of the said tanks, the assessee could have either sold the same, or disposed of the same in any manner whatsoever, because they were not serviceable as stated above, but the fact remains that those storage tanks were obviously "empties", and hence, the facts of the present case, at once, attract the statutory meaning of the word "business" as defined in section 2(4)(ii) of the Act. At this stage, we may hasten to add that even the statutory definition of the word "dealer" as provided in section 2(10) of the Act also contemplates a situation that whenever a dea....