1988 (6) TMI 314

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.... see how the transmission beltings are manufactured. Even according to the Deputy Commissioner who revised the order of the Commercial Tax Officer and held that they are not cotton fabrics, they are manufactured with cotton and superimposed with rubber. The question is whether they can be called "cotton fabrics". Entry 5 of the Fourth Schedule reads as follows: "FOURTH SCHEDULE Goods exempted from tax under section 8 S.No. Description of goods: 1.. ............................................ 2. ............................................ 3. ............................................ 4. ............................................ 5. Cotton fabrics, rayon or artificial silk fabrics and woollen fabrics. * * * Ex....

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.... and the expression 'textile' is described as 'any product manufactured from fibres through twisting, interlacing, bonding, looping, or any other means, in such a manner that the flexibility, strength, and other characteristic properties of the individual fibres are not suppressed'. The Man-Made Textile Encyclopedia (1959) defines fabric as 'a collective term applied to cloth no matter how constructed or manufactured and regardless of the kind of fibre from which made. In structure it is planar produced by interlacing yarns, fibres or filaments. Textile fabrics include the following varieties, bonding, felted, knitted, braided and woven'. The Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles (1959) says that fabric is 'a cloth that is woven or knit, br....

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.... 5 of the Fourth Schedule to the Act and, therefore, exempt from tax. The learned Government Pleader brought to our notice the decision of the Gujarat High Court in Hind Engineering Co. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax [1973] 31 STC 115 where it was held that rubber beltings manufactured by superimposing rubber or rubber compound on both sides of canvas and used in machineries employed for transmission of power are not "cotton fabrics" within the meaning of entry 15 of Schedule A to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959. The court observed that even if it is assumed that canvas is comprehended within the meaning of "cotton fabrics" for the purposes of the Act, the process of superimposition of rubber brings about such a basic change in its characte....