TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (4) TMI 73
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....electronic toys', or is to be taxed as 'arms and ammunition' vide Entry 2 of Schedule IV, is the question posed for consideration. An application under Section 59 was moved seeking Commissioner's opinion. The Commissioner, Commercial Tax, vide his order dated 20.8.2013 opined that 'air gun' and 'air pistol' is to be taxed as 'arms and ammunition'. Tribunal rejected appeal filed against it. Thus aggrieved, assessee has preferred this revision and following questions are formulated for consideration:- "(1) Whether the Commercial Tax Tribunal being the last court of the fact was justified in treating the 'Air Gun and Air Pistol' to fall under entry no.2 of Schedule IV of U.P. VAT Act viz....
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.... a revision in view of the amendment in the law. 3. Air Guns is weapon in which compressed air is used for propelling a lead pellet, the velocity of the pellet depends upon the air pressure released from the compressor chamber of the gun. Although most of the air gun are not lethal, in the sense that projectiles fired through them is not capable of killing human being, yet it is capable of inflicting bodily injuries. In the case of Commissioner of Sales Tax, U.P. vs. M/s Madan Sons, Dehradun, 1978 UPTC 676 the question came was as to whether Khukhris were arms. In that case Notification No. ST 1738/X dated 1.6.1963 came for consideration. In the present case, it is Notification No.ST-1012/X dated 23.3.1971 but the relevant words ar....
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....Tax Act. Decision of this Court in M/s Agarwal Brothers, Faizabad (supra) was not followed for the reasons set out in para 6, which is reproduced:- "6. The next decision referred to by the Government Pleader is Agarwal Brothers v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, U.P. [1980] 45 STC 318 (All.). After referring to the decision reported in Commissioner of Sales Tax, U.P. v. Madan Sons [1979] 43 STC 207 (All.), wherein it has been held : The word 'arm' is not a term of art and has to be understood in its popular sense. According to Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'arm' means '(1) Defensive and offensive outfit for war; things used in fighting; (2) instrument of offence used in war, 'weapons'. The phra....
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....g of a fiscal entry, reference to a dictionary is apt to be somewhat delusive guide as it gives all the different shades of meaning. [See Collector of Central Excise, Kanpur v. Krishna Carbon Paper Company JT 1988 (4) SC 762.] Their Lordships also observed in the said judgment that it is a well-settled principle of construction, as mentioned before, that where the word has a scientific or technical meaning and also an ordinary meaning according to common parlance, it is in the latter sense that in a taxing statute the word must be held to have been used. This principle is well settled by a long line of decisions of Canadian, Amercian, Australian and Indian cases. Pollock, J., pointed out in Grenfell v. Inland Revenue Commissioners (1876) 1 ....
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.... this Court that 'arms and ammunition' as taxing entry would not be attracted and that view taken in M/s Agarwal Brothers Faizabad (supra) does not lay down correct law. 6. Learned Standing Counsel, on the other hand, submits that the judgment of this Court in M/s Agarwal Brothers Faizabad (supra) has consistently been followed for a period of last more than 38 years, and if the applicant's argument is found to have substance, then the question be referred to a Larger Bench. 7. In the absence of a definition in the Act, 'arms' as a taxing entry would have to be construed as is ordinarily understood in common parlance. It is the meaning assigned to term in popular sense which must prevail. Merely because air gun can....