TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1985 (11) TMI 209
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....mber, 1977, passed under section 21 of the Act, these goods were treated as surgical goods taxable at the rate of 7 per cent as unclassified items with effect from 1st December, 1973, and at 4 per cent prior to that date, and additional tax was also assessed. In respect of the assessment year 1974-75, the assessee had disclosed his turnover at Rs. 3,04,306.57 and vide order dated 3rd March, 1975, passed under rule 41(7) of the Rules, the tax at the rate of 3½ per cent was levied on the turnover in respect of the said goods, "catguts-sutures". Subsequently, proceedings under section 21 of the Act were initiated and vide order dated 26th November, 1977, the said items were treated as surgical goods taxable at 7 per cent as unclassified items with effect from 1st December, 1973, and at 4 per cent prior to that date and the additional tax was also assessed. Similarly, in the assessment year 1975-76 the assessee had disclosed a turnover of Rs. 4,47,740.35. It was, however, not accepted and the Sales Tax Officer by order dated 3rd March, 1975, passed under rule 41(7) of the Rules determined the turnover at Rs. 4,70,000. The tax was assessed at 6 per cent (5 per cent tax plus I per....
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....order. Learned standing counsel, Sri P.C. Verma, urged that these goods cannot be taken to fall under the category of "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations". These are surgical goods being substance used for stitching wounds and in surgical operations and since these do not cure and prevent any disease, they cannot be categorised as "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations". In all these present revisions the sole question for consideration is as to what would be the rate of tax applicable to the catguts-sutures while determining the tax payable by the assessee on the taxable turnover in respect of the said goods. According to the learned standing counsel the catguts-sutures can be treated only as surgical goods which may be liable to be assessed to tax as unclassified items while on the other hand learned counsel for the assessee, Sri Rajaram Agarwal, Advocate, urged that the catguts-sutures would fall under the category of "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations" and that the same have been rightly treated by the lower appellate authority as well as the Additional judge (Revisions), Sales Tax, to fall under the said category and assessed as such. I have perused the impu....
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....use diseases in human beings or animals are also covered by the definition of "drug" under the Act. The "catguts-sutures and sterilized surgical sutures" have been treated to be drugs under the said Act and a licence is required to be obtained for manufacturing and selling of these items. The United States Pharmacopoeia and British Pharmacopoeia provide formula for the manufacture of absorbable surgical sutures (catguts) and these are prepared in accordance with the prescribed formula. It cannot be denied that catguts-sutures are used in stitching external and internal wounds in surgical operations and it thus provides surgical treatment in healing the wounds by joining disintegrated tissues of the affected body caused due to any accidental injury or in surgical operations. The term "medicine" has not been expressly defined in section 3 of the said Act but the "drug" defined under clause (b) of section 3 includes all "medicines" for internal or external use of human beings or animals in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of diseases. In Webster's Dictionary (3rd Edition) "medicine" has been defined to mean substance or preparation' used in treating diseases....
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....ve been used for centuries. "Catgut" popularised by Lister, is broken down in the tissues and disappears. The disappearance of the "suture" does not weaken the repair, because no suture is more than a splint to facilitate healing by living tissue. The sterilized absorbable catgutssutures (USP) are used in surgical treatment as hemostatic covering for surgical wounds to control haemorrhage when other conventional methods are impractical or ineffective. As in the non-surgical treatment a "drug" is given for curing the diseases and ailment in the body, so is the case in surgical treatment where catguts-sutures are utilized in stitching the wound which prevents its decay and assists in healing and in the process it dissolves in the treated (sic) merely a surgical apparatus and would fall in the category of "medicines" and pharmaceutical preparations. In Rashtra Deep Laboratory, Firozabad v. Commissioner of Sales Tax [1983] 53 STC 419 (All.), Honourable V.K. Mehrotra, J., observed: "The concept of medicine is not static. It is a changing concept linked with the advancing human knowledge and its endeavour to alleviate human suffering. It is also changing with the change in social t....