1977 (4) TMI 37

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....n in the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad for quashing the order levying excise duty on the felts manufactured by the respondent treating them as "woollen fabrics" covered by Entry 21 in Sch. I of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The High Court allowed the writ petition holding that the respondent's products were not "woollen fabrics" and directed refund of the sum of Rs. 55,055. 87 p. collected as excise duty from the firm. The Union of India has preferred this appeal on certificate of fitness granted by the High Court questioning the correctness of the decision. 2. The only question in the appeal is whether the felts manufactured by the respondents are "woollen fabrics" within the meaning o....

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....manufactured by the respondents, as already stated, are non-woven felt from woollen fibres. It is contended on behalf of the appellant Union of India that in a technical sense the felts manufactured by the respondent would still be woollen fabrics. The well-known rule in interpreting items in statutes like the one we are concerned with is that "resort should be had not to the scientific or the technical meaning attached to them by those dealing in them, that is to say, to their commercial sense." (Commr. of Sales Tax, Madhya Pradesh, Indore v. M/s. Jaswant Singh, Charan Singh, AIR 1967 SC 1454). The High Court has held that a trader dealing in woollen fabrics would not regard the respondent's products as woollen fabrics, but it does not app....