TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2014 (3) TMI 821
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....977' (for short "the notification"). 3. In order to answer the aforesaid issue, brief facts may be noted. For the sake of convenience, we would only notice facts in Civil Appeal No. 1179 of 2004. In this appeal, we are concerned with the assessment years 1979-80, 1981-82, 1982-83 and 1983-84. The appellant is a dealer under the Act. It is engaged in the sale of various items, including food colors and food essences and according to the appellant, the aforesaid products are used in the manufacture of foodstuffs and food products. 4. At the stage, it would be useful to refer to the said notification issued by the State Government. The same is extracted under: "Notification No.ST-II-7218/X-6(43)-77-U.P.Act XV/48- Order-77, dated 30.9.1977 [Published in U.P.Gazette Extraordinary, dated 1-10-1977] In exercise of the powers under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 3-A of the U.P.Sales Tax Act, 1948 (U.P.Act No.XV of 1948), read with section 21 of the U.P.General Clauses Act, 1904 (U.P.Act No.1 of 1904), the Governor is pleased to make, with efffect from October 1, 1977, the following amendment in Notification No.ST-II- 332/X-1012-1971, dated November 15, 1971, as amende....
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....d in revision before the High Court by the Revenue. The High Court after carefully analysing Entry 56 of the Notification has come to the conclusion that food colours and food essences must not be construed in their technical parlance but must be read in common parlance and therefore, cannot be characterized as foodstuffs and food products and, accordingly, reversed the finding and conclusion reached by the Tribunal and allowed the revision petition filed by the Revenue. 10. Aggrieved by the said finding and conclusion reached by the High Court, the assessee is before us in these appeals. 11. We have heard Shri Dhruv Agrawal, learned senior counsel appearing for the appellant and Shri Pawan Shree Agarwal, learned counsel for the respondent-State. We have also carefully perused the relevant entry i.e. Entry 56 of the Notification for the relevant assessment years and the orders of Courts below. 12. As we have already noticed, the assessee carries on the business of the sale of food colours and food essences. According to the appellant- assessee, the food colours and food essences would fall under Entry 56 of the Notification, dated 30.9.1977 and thereby he would be liable f....
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....ive value which is consumed for growth or sustaining ones life. 17. It is trite that there is no fixed test for classification of a taxable commodity and the most commonly employed is the "common parlance test". Whether a particular article will fall within a particular tariff heading or not has to be decided on the basis of the tangible material or evidence to determine how such an article is understood in "common parlance" or in its popular sense meaning. That is to say, comprehending the term in same context as those who are concerned with it and it is that the sense in which they understand it that constitutes the definitive index of the legislative intention, when the statute was enacted. (A. Nagaraju Bros. v. State of A.P., 1994 Supp (3) SCC 122; Delhi Cloth and General Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan, (1996) 2 SCC 449; CCE v. Wockhardt Life Sciences Ltd., (2012) 5 SCC 585) 18. The use of "common parlance" test and its advantage over the "etymological" test has been very aptly explained by this Court in context of term "furniture" in Craft Interiors (P) Ltd. v. CCE, (2006) 12 SCC 250. This Court has observed as under: "18. We may add that sometimes chairs, beds,....
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....it includes everything that goes into the preparation of food proper (as understood in the narrow sense) to make it more palatable and digestible. In my opinion, the problem posed cannot be answered in the abstract and must be viewed in relation to its background and context. ... 11. It will be seen from these definitions that "foodstuff" has no special meaning of its own. It merely carries us back to the definition of "food" because "foodstuff" is anything which is used as "food". 12. So far as "food" is concerned, it can be used in a wide as well as a narrow sense and, in my opinion, much must depend upon the context and background. Even in a popular sense, when one asks another, "Have you had your food?", one means the composite preparations which normally go to constitute a meal - curry and rice, sweetmeats, pudding, cooked vegetables and so forth...." 21. Further, in Virkumar Gulabchand Shah case (supra) Fazal Ali J. while concurring with the views of Bose J. has observed as follows: "In one sense, everything which enters into the composition of food so as to make it palatable may be described as "foodstuff", but that word is commonly used with reference only to th....