TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1983 (4) TMI 264
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.... are not engraved. The dispute is whether such cylinders are entitled to exemption from central excise duty under entry No. 21 of Notification No. 55/75-C.E. which reads as under :- "21. Engraved copper rollers or cylinders for use in textile industry." 3. The appellants argued that the word "or" is disjunctive and it does not mean "and" (AIR 1974 S.C. 686). Accordingly, they stated that the words "Engraved copper" qualified only rollers and not cylinders. At this, the Department's representative pointed out that the interpretation placed by the appellants on the entry would mean that all types of cylinders used in textile industry were exempt under the entry. He added that the textile industry used cylinders of various types, those ....
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....t should be construed to mean that it covered cylinders to e engraved for use in textile industry. 4. The Department's representative relied on the Supreme Court judgment in Rainbow Steels Ltd. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax. U.P. (2 SCR 1981 727). In this case, the Supreme Court, while interpreting the entry "old, discarded, unserviceable or obsolete machinery", held that the principle of nocitur a sociis was applicable in that case and that this principle was explained in Maxwell on the Interpretation of Statutes (12th Edition) at page 289 thus :- "Where two or more words which are susceptible of analogous meaning are coupled together, nocitur a sociis, they are understood to be used in their cognate sense. They take, as it were, the....
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....e to take the very important step of altering the verbiage of that Act". It would not be out of place to repeat here the well-known dictum laid down by our own Supreme Court that grammar is a bad master to dictate. From all this, we find that there is no hard and fast rule as to the meaning of the word "or" and that this word gets its proper meaning from the particular context in which it has been used. it was take the word "or" used in entry 21 of the notification as disjunctive, as pleaded by the appellants, the said entry gets broken into two distinct parts (1) engraved copper rollers, and (2) cylinders for use in textile industry. By doing so, we run into all sorts of incongruities. The implication then would be that engraved copper rol....