2005 (9) TMI 596

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....itioner is a registered partnership firm carrying on business of works contract. Petitioner-firm is a registered dealer. Petitioner purchased Escorts JCB 3D Excavator Loader from outside the State of Madhya Pradesh and brought it within the local area (Indore) for use. The assessing officer by order impugned (annexure A) assessed and levied entry tax under section 3-A of the M.P. Sthaniya Kshetra Me Mal Ke Pravesh Par Kar Adhiniyam, 1976 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act" for convenience). In addition to tax, the assessing officer had also imposed penalty in the shape of interest. Petitioner challenged the assessment order before the revisional authority and by the order impugned (annexure C), revisional authority maintained assessment w....

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.... hinges upon the said expression and would determine validity of impugned orders that the tax is chargeable under section 3 or section 3-A of the Act. Prior to adverting to the legal aspect of the controversy, it is pertinent to point out admitted facts. Undisputedly item 32 of Schedule II appended to the Act covers JCB excavator Loader being a type of motor vehicle. It is accepted that the Excavator requires registration in the State of Madhya Pradesh under the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. It is also acknowledged that petitioner brought aforesaid Excavator Loader from outside into the local area and is using it during the course of the business. Further that the petitioner, as a registered dealer, is liable to pay comm....

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....considered view that the said proposition is inapplicable, unless it is held that word "and" occurring between clauses (i) and (ii) of sub-section (1) of section 3-A is disjunctive. In ordinary usage, "and" is conjunctive which merely joins together two sentences and sometimes word and "or " disjunctive. No doubt, at times to give effect to clear legislative intent gathered form the context, "and" may be read as "or" in place of conjunctive or vice versa, but if such reading of "and" as "or " produces grammatical distortion; absurd results and makes no sense of the portion following "and", "or" cannot be read in place of "and". In the light of the aforesaid settled legal position, this court is of the view that both clauses of sub-sectio....