2022 (2) TMI 1111

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....t Madras in Writ Appeal No. 947 of 2018 whereby, the Division Bench has reversed the common order dated 13.12.2017 as passed by the learned Single Judge in a batch of petitions led by Writ Petition No. 17722 of 2017; and has disapproved the impugned clarification orders dated 14.02.2013 and 29.06.2017. 1.1. By the said clarification orders, the petitioner No. 1, the Authority for Clarification and Advance Ruling, had held that the commodity "Hank Yarn", as stipulated in Entry 44 of Part B of the Fourth Schedule to the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 ('the Act'), meant only "Cotton Hank Yarn" and not "Viscose Staple Fiber ('VSF') Hank Yarn". 2. The learned Single Judge agreed with the interpretation put by the petitioner No. 1, essent....

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....it clear that the exemption Entry 44, while describing the goods as "Hank Yarn", was meant only for the benefit of handloom industry in the textile sector; and the Entry was required to be understood and interpreted that way alone. Learned senior counsel has also referred to the said notification dated 17.04.2003 issued by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. Learned senior counsel has further referred to the decision of this Court in K.P. Varghese v. Income Tax Officer: (1981) 4 SCC 173 to submit that when literal interpretation leads to a result which was never intended by the Legislature, the Court may, rather should, depart from the plain language and modify the same so as to achieve the obvious intention of the Legislature. ....

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....vision Bench of the High Court has taken note of the reasons that prevailed with the learned Single Judge as also the extensive contentions of the parties and, thereafter, has observed, inter alia, as under: - "20. We are unable to agree with the contention of the learned Special Government Pleader for the Revenue. The intention, if any, of the State could have been very well expressed in clear terms of the Entry 44 itself. Nothing prevented the State from writing Entry 44 as 'Cotton Hank Yarn' or 'Hank yarn sold to Handloom Industries'. We cannot import external aids of interpretation where the plain meaning of the terms of the statute, namely the exemption Entry, is clear itself. The external aids for interpretation can ....

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.... chief raw material for Handloom Industry or merely because powerloom industry can have an overarch over the Handloom Industry in the textile sector, we cannot deny the exemption to the supply of raw material namely VSF and PF Hank yarn to powerloom industry in the face of the plain language of the plain words 'Hank Yarn' employed in Entry 44 of the Fourth Schedule to the Act." 11. As noticed, the Entry in question, as inserted into the Fourth Schedule to the Act, is clear and specific that is, "Hank Yarn"; it carries neither any ambiguity nor any confusion. Undoubtably, the yarn in the hank form (which is a unit of measure), has come for exemption under the said Entry 44; and obviously, that exemption enures to the benefit of the ....