TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (4) TMI 73
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....s '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. 'Arms and Ammunition' liable to tax th....
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....pressed 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 are similar. It has been held in that case the word 'arms' means a weapon, which is ca....
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....ut 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 phrase 'in arms', according to this dictionary, means 'armed; furnished with weapons, sword in hand, prepared to fight....
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....llector 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 Ex D 242 at page 248 that if a statute contains language which is capable of being construed in a popular sense, such a statute is not to be....