TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2006 (10) TMI 2
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....the Central Excise Act, 1944 against the impugned order of the Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as 'The Tribunal'), South Zone Bench, Bangalore dated 10.5.2005. Heard learned Counsel for the parties and perused the record. 2. The appellant is a private limited company which undertakes various activities, which includes civil works, painting, ceiling work, electrical work, laying of vinyl flooring, tables, chairs, sofa sets, erection of immovable items viz., partitions (wooden/glass/aluminium/gypsum board), storages, workstations, laying of wooden flooring, column cladding, skirting, mirror paneling, window sill, wooden steps, doors, huge conference tables and huge reception tables depe....
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....d as a result of which it gets reduced to broken pieces of wood, laminates etc. 4. The Central Excise authorities issued various show cause notices to the appellants alleging that the appellants had manufactured and assembled excisable goods i.e. furniture and furniture parts falling under Chapter 9403 in the premises of various customers. In response it was contended by the appellants that activities undertaken by them i.e. erection of storage units, kitchen counters, reception tables/conference tables etc. results in emergence of immovable property and could not be considered as excisable goods. The Commissioner vide his order dated 24.9.2003 held that items like storage units, running counters, large reception tables etc. are classifi....
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....re fixtures and not furniture. He submitted that several of the items in question were erected piece by piece and fixed to the wall or ground and as such are not moveable property. In other words, the same cannot be removed without cannibalizing i.e. without reducing them into broken piece of wood, laminates etc. In this connection we may refer to the definition of 'furniture' in various dictionaries. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Tenth Edn. Revised) defines 'furniture' as follows : the movable articles that are used to make a room or building suitable for living or working in, such as tables, chairs, or desks. Similarly, Chambers English Dictionary defines 'furniture' as follows: mov....
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....s, etc. are affixed to the ground, but nevertheless they will still be called as furniture (one may recall the fixed bed in Sherlock Holme's story 'The Speckled Band'). This is because when we interpret a word we should not only see the dictionary meaning but even more the popular meaning which the word has acquired in common parlance. As stated by K.L. Sarkar in his book "Mimansa Rules of Interpretation" (see second edition published by Modern Law Publication, Allahabad), "the popular meaning overpowers the etymological meaning." To give an example, the word 'pankaja' literally means born in mud. The word 'panka' means 'mud' and the word 'ja' means 'which is horn in'. Hence the etymologic....