TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1989 (1) TMI 335
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....ry reads "all arms including rifles, revolvers, pistols and ammunitions for the same." 2.. The respondent is a dealer in stationery and allied goods at Calicut. During the assessment year 1983-84, the respondent returned a taxable turnover of Rs. 2,45,712 which was enhanced in assessment to Rs. 2,47,780. The only question raised by the assessee in the appeal before the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal related to the rate of tax that could be applied to air-gun and pellets. The assessing officer brought to tax the said items at the rate of 20 per cent holding that they fall under item 157 of the First Schedule to the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 which reads as "all arms including rifles, revolvers, pistols and ammunitions for the same" ....
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.... (SC) that facts should be viewed in the natural perspective and no hyper technicality should be imported. 4.. The word "arms" must be understood to mean weapons of offence. For the purpose of deciding whether any instrument falls within the category of arms, it is immaterial what the name, shape or size of the instrument is; it is material to determine whether or not the instrument is possessed for the purpose of offence or defence. Implements of ordinary domestic use such as an axe or knife cannot fall within the meaning of the expression "arms". It is the intention of the manufacturer, not of the possessor of the implement as to the use to which it is put, which is determinative. The purpose for which the implement is primar....
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....; (2) instrument of offence used in war, 'weapons'. The phrase 'in arms', according to this dictionary, means 'armed; furnished with weapons, sword in hand, prepared to fight'. The dictionary meaning indicates that every weapon would be 'an arm' and that 'swords' are arms. Like a sword which is used as a cutting or stabbing instrument, khukri also serves the same purpose. They would also answer the description of a weapon which, according to Concise Oxford Dictionary, means 'material' thing designed or used or usable as an instrument for inflicting bodily harm, e.g., gun, bomb, rifle, sword, spear......." the learned judge observed that: "It has been held in that case that the word 'arms' means a weapon, which is capable of inflicting....
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....nd Revenue Commissioners [1876] 1 Ex D 242 at page 248 that if a statute contains language which is capable of being construed in a popular sense, such a statute is not to be construed according to the strict or technical meaning of the language contained in it, but is to be construed in its popular sense, meaning, by the words "popular sense" that which people conversant with the subject-matter with which the statute is dealing would attribute to it. The ordinary words in every day use are, therefore, to be construed according to their popular sense. Going by these decisions we have no hesitation in holding that "arms" and ammunition enumerated in entry 157 of the First Schedule will not take in air-guns and pellets. In common parlance ....