TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2005 (8) TMI 673
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....f time the landlord of the house where respondent No.2-G.D. Padraha, Advocate was staying as a tenant. He was occupying the tenanted premises till 1981. Thereafter, he shifted to his own house, but he maintained his office in the tenanted premises. There was an electricity service line in that house and it was in the name of the landlord who was paying at the rate applicable to domestic consumers. In January, 1986 some officials of the Board inspected the service meter and served a notice to the landlord alleging that he is using the service connection for commercial purposes instead of domestic purposes. The landlord replied stating that he had never used the premises for commercial purposes. However, the respondent No.2 had his office in the premises. Notice of demand was raised after considering the reply and it was held that the rate applicable to the commercial consumers was applicable, on the basis of a circular issued by the Board laying down different types of connections for domestic purposes and commercial purposes. The validity of the circular classifying office of an advocate as a commercial establishment was questioned in the writ petition. The High Court as noted abov....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....used for the professional purposes even by the Advocate, Vakils, Doctors, Writers, Poets and Artists and shall be billed at Board L.T. Tariff applicable. Director, Commercial M.P. Electricity Board Jabalpur." List of consumers who are treated as belonging to the commercial category clearly shows that there is an element of commerce involved in them as would be evident from the Notification dated 8th July, 1975. The word 'commerce' is a derivative of the word 'commercial'. The word 'commercial' originates from the word 'commerce' which has been defined in Black's Law Dictionary- Sixth Edition as under: "Commerce.-The exchange of goods, productions, or property of any kind, the buying, selling, and exchanging of articles. Anderson v. Humble Oil and Refining Co.226 Ga.252, 174 S.E.2d 415, 417. The transportation of persons and property by land, water and air. Union Pacific R.Co. v. State Tax Commissioner, 19 Utah 2d 236, 429 p.2d 983, 984. Intercourse by way of trade and traffic between different people or States and the citizens or inhabitants thereof, including not only the purchase, sale, and exchange of commodities, but also th....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....exchange of merchandise especially on a large scale between different countries or districts; intercourse for the purpose of trade in any and all its forms (S.2 (13), Income Tax Act).' The word 'profession' has been defined in Black's Law Dictionary- Sixth Ed. as under: 'Profession- A vocation or occupation requiring special, usually advanced education, knowledge, and skill; e.g. law or medical professions. Also refers to whole body of such profession. The labour and skill involved in a profession in predominantly mental or intellectual, rather than physical or manual. The term originally contemplated only technology, law and medicine, but as applications of science and learning are extended to other departments of affairs, other vocations also receive the name, which implies professed attainments in special knowledge as distinguished from mere skill. Act of professing; a public declaration respecting something. Profession of faith in a religion." The word 'profession' has also been defined in the Advanced Law Lexicon Volume-3 at page 3764 which reads as under: "Profession- A 'profession' involves the idea of an occupation requi....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....48)" "A profession or occupation is carried on for the purpose of earning a livelihood and a profit motive does not underline such carrying of profession or occupation. L.M. Chitala vs. Commissioner of Labour. (AIR 1964 Mad.131, 133 (Constitution of India, Art. 19(6)" "Profession as distinguished with 'commercial' means a person who enters into a profession. It involves certain amount of skill as against commercial activity where it is more of a matter of things or business activity. In profession, it is purely use of skill activity. Therefore, two are distinct concepts in commercial activity one works for gain or profit and as against this, in profession, one works for his livelihood." This Court in V. Sasidharan v. M/s Peter and Karunakar (AIR 1984 SC 1700) held as under: ".........It does not require any strong argument to justify the conclusion that the office of a lawyer or a firm of lawyers is not a 'shop' within the meaning of Section 2(15). Whatever may be the popular conception or misconception regarding the role of today's lawyers and the alleged narrowing of the gap between a profession on one hand and a trade or business on th....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... follows :- "The two terms "domestic" and 'commercial" are not defined in the Act or the Rules. Therefore, the expressions are to be given the common parlance meaning and must be understood in their natural, ordinary and popular sense. In interpreting the phrases the context in which they are used is also to be kept in mind. In Stroud's Judicial Dictionary (5th Edn.) the term "commercial" is defined as "traffic, trade or merchandise in buying and selling of goods". In the said dictionary the phrase "domestic purpose" is stated to mean use for personal residential purposes. In essence the question is, what the character of the purpose of user of the premises by the owner or landlord is and not the character of the place of user. For example, running a boarding house is a business, but persons in a boarding house may use water for "domestic" purposes. As noted earlier the classification made for the purpose of charging electricity duty by NDMC sets out the categories "domestic" user as contradistinguished from "commercial" user or to put it differently "non-domestic user". The intent and purpose of the classifications as we see it, is to make a distinction between pu....