Case: GOVERNMENT OF KERALA &amp; ANR Vs. MOTHER SUPERIOR ADORATION CONVENT

of the Tribunal but without any order as to costs. 19. While construing an exemption in a sales tax statute, this Court in CST v. Amara Raja Batteries Ltd (2009) 8 SCC 209 held: 21. An exemption notification should be given a literary (sic literal) meaning. Recourse to other principles or canons of interpretation of statute should be resorted to only in the event the same give rise to anomaly or absurdity. The exemption notification must be construed having regard to the purpose and object it seeks to achieve. The Government sought for increase in industrial development in the State. Such a benevolent act on the part of the State, unless there exists any statutory interdict, should be given full effect. (See Vadilal Chemicals Ltd. v. State of A.P. (2005) 6 SCC 292 ) 20. Likewise, even under the Customs Act, this Court in Commr. of Customs (Preventive) v. M. Ambalal & Co. (2011) 2 SCC 74 made a clear distinction between exemptions which are to be strictly interpreted as opposed to beneficial exemptions having as their purpose - encouragement or promotion of certain activities. This case felicitously put the law thus follows: 16. It is settled law that the notification has to be read as a whole. If any of the conditions laid down in the notification is not fulfilled, the party is not entitled to the benefit of that notification. The rule regarding exemptions is that exemptions should generally be strictly interpreted but beneficial exemptions having their purpose as encouragement or promotion of certain activities should be liberally interpreted. This composite rule is not stated in any particular judgment in so many words. In fact, majority of judgments emphasise that exemptions are to be strictly interpreted while some of them insist that exemptions in fiscal statutes are to be liberally interpreted giving an apparent impression that they are contradictory to each other. But this is only apparent. A close scrutiny will reveal that there is no real contradiction amongst the judgments at all. The synthesis of the views is quite clearly that the general rule is strict interpretation while special rule in the case of beneficial and promotional exemption is liberal interpretation. The two go very well with each other because they relate to two different sets of circumstances. 21. This judgment was followed in CCE v. Favourite Industries (2012) 7 SCC 153 (see paragraph 42). 22. A recent 5-Judge Bench judgment was cited by Shri Gupta in Commr. of Customs v. Dilip Kumar & Co. (2018) 9 SCC 1. The 5- Judge Bench was set up as a 3-Judge Bench in Sun Export Corporation v. Collector of Customs 1997 (6) SCC 564 was doubted, as the said judgment ruled that an ambiguity in a tax exemption provision must be interpreted so as to favour the assessee claiming the benefit of such exemption. This Court after dealing with a number of judgments relating to exemption provisions in tax statutes, ultimately concluded as follows: 66. To sum up, we answer the reference holding as under: 66.1. Exemption notification should be interpreted strictly; the burden of proving applicability would be on the assessee to show that his case comes within the parameters of the exemption clause or exemption notification. 66.2. When there is ambiguity in exemption notification which is subject to strict interpretation, the benefit of such ambiguity cannot be claimed by the subject/assessee and it must be interpreted in favour of the Revenue. 66.3. The ratio in Sun Export case [Sun Export Corpn. v. Collector of Customs, (1997) 6 SCC 564 ] is not correct and all the decisions which took similar view as in Sun Export case stand overruled. 23. It may be noticed that the 5-Judge Bench judgment did not refer to the line of authority which made a distinction between exemption provisions generally and exemption provisions which have a beneficial purpose. We cannot agree with Shri Guptas contention that sub-silentio the line of judgments qua beneficial exemptions has been done away with by this 5-Judge Bench. It is well settled that a decision is only an authority for what it decides and not what may logically follow from it (see Quinn v. Leathem [1901] AC 495 as followed in State of Orissa v. Sudhansu Sekhar Misra (1968) 2 SCR 154 at 162,163) 24. This being the case, it is obvious that the beneficial purpose of the exemption contained in Section 3(1)(b) must be given full effect to, the line of authority being applicable to the facts of these cases being the line of authority which deals with beneficial exemptions as opposed to exemptions generally in tax statutes. This being the case, a literal formalistic interpretation of the statute at hand is to be eschewed. We must first ask ourselves what is the object sought to be achieved by the provision, and construe the statute in accord with such object. And on the assumption that any ambiguity arises in such construction, such ambiguity must be in favour of that which is exempted. Consequently, for the reasons given by us, we agree withthe conclusions reached by the impugned judgments of the Division Bench and the Full Bench. 25. The matter can also be seen from a slightly different angle. Where a High Court construes a local statute, ordinarily deference must be given to the High Court judgments in interpreting such a statute, particularly when they have stood the test of time (see State of Gujarat v. Zinabhai Ranchhodji Darji (1972) 1 SCC 233 at paragraph 10, Bishamber Dass Kohli v. Satya Bhalla (1993) 1 SCC 566 at paragraph 11, Duroflex Coir Industries Ltd. v. CST 1993 Supp (1) SCC 568 at paragraph 2, State of Karnataka v. G. Seenappa 1993 Supp (1) SCC 648 at paragraph 3 and Bonam Satyavathi v. Addala Raghavulu 1994 Supp (2) SCC 556 at paragraph 4). This is all the more applicable in the case of tax statutes where persons arrange their affairs on the basis of the legal position as it exists.

Court's decision (1 = petition accepted / positive for appellant, 0 = rejected / negative): 0

Reasoning from the judgment:
0[ds]12. A reading of the provision would show that the object for exempting buildings which are used principally for religious, charitable or educational purposes would be for core religious, charitable or educational activity as well as purposes directly connected with religious activity. One example will suffice to show the difference between a purpose that is directly connected with religious or educational activity and a purpose which is only indirectly connected with such activity. Take a case where, unlike the facts in Civil Appeal No. 202 of 2012, nuns are not residing in a building next to a convent so that they may walk over to the convent for religious instruction. Take a case where the neighbouring building to the convent is let out on rent to any member of the public, and the rent is then utilised only for core religious activity. Can it be said that the letting out at market rent would be connected with religious activity because the rental that is received is ploughed back only into religious activity? Letting out a building for a commercial purpose would lose any rational connection with religious activity. The indirectconnection with religious activity being the profits which are ploughed back into religious activity would obviously not suffice to exempt such a building. But if on the other hand, nuns areliving in a neighbouring building to a convent only so that they may receive religious instruction there, or if students are living in a hostel close to the school or college in which they are imparted instruction, it is obvious that the purpose of such residence is not to earn profit but residence that is integrally connected with religious or educational activity.13. A reading of the other provisions of the Act strengthens the aforesaid conclusion. Residential building is defined separately from building in Section 2(l). A residential building means a building or any other structure or part thereof built exclusively for residential purpose. It is important to note that residential building is not the subject matter of exemption under Section 3 of the Act. Quite the contrary is to be found in Section 5A of the Act, which starts with a non-obstante clause, and which states that a luxury tax is to be charged on all residential buildings having a plinth area of 278.7 square meters and which have been completed on or after 1.4.1999. If we were to accept the contention of the State, buildings in which nuns are housed and students are accommodated in hostels which have been completed after 1.4.1999 and which have a plinth area of 278.7 square meters would be liable to pay luxury tax as these buildings would now no longer be buildings used principally for religious or educational purposes, but would be residential buildings used exclusively for residential purposes. This would turn the object sought to be achieved in exempting such buildings on its head. For this reason also, we cannot countenance a plea by the State that buildings which are used for purposes integrally connected with religious or educational activity are yet outside the scope of the exemption contained in Section 3(1)(b) of the Act. We may now examine the case law.14. In Union of India v. Wood Papers Ltd (1990) 4 SCC 256   the rule as to exemption notifications in tax statutes was felicitously laid down as follows:4. Entitlement of exemption depends on construction of the expression any factory commencing production used in the Table extracted above. Literally exemption is freedom from liability, tax or duty. Fiscally it may assume varying shapes, specially, in a growing economy. For instance tax holiday to new units, concessional rate of tax to goods or persons for limited period or with the specific objective etc. That is why its construction, unlike charging provision, has to be tested on different touchstone. In fact an exemption provision is like an exception and on normal principle of construction or interpretation of statutes it is construed strictly either because of legislative intention or on economic justification of inequitable burden or progressive approach of fiscal provisions intended to augment State revenue. But once exception or exemption becomes applicable no rule or principle requires it to be construed strictly. Truly speaking liberal and strict construction of an exemption provision are to be invoked at different stages of interpreting it. When the question is whether a subject falls in the notification or in the exemption clause then it being in nature of exception is to be construed strictly and against the subject but once ambiguity or doubt about applicability is lifted and the subject falls in the notification then full play should be given to it and it calls for a wider and liberal construction. Therefore, the first exercise that has to be undertaken is if the production of packing and wrapping material in the factory as it existed prior to 1964 is covered in the notification.15. This statement of the law was followed in a number of judgments. Suffice it to say that in Star Industries v. Commr. of Customs (Imports) (2016) 2 SCC 362 , a large number of judgments are referred to for the same proposition (see paragraphs 32 to 34).16. However, there is another line of authority which states that even in tax statutes, an exemption provision should be liberally construed in accordance with the object sought to be achieved if such provision is to grant incentive for promoting economic growth or otherwise has some beneficial reason behind it. In such cases, the rationale of the judgments following Wood Papers (supra) does not apply. In fact, the legislative intent is not to burden the subject with tax so that some specific public interest is furthered. Thus, in CST v. Industrial Coal Enterprises (1999) 2 SCC 607 , this Court held:11. In CIT v. Straw Board Mfg. Co. Ltd. 1989 Supp (2) SCC 523 this Court held that in taxing statutes, provision for concessional rate of tax should be liberally construed. So also in Bajaj Tempo Ltd. v. CIT (1992) 3 SCC 78   it was held that provision granting incentive for promoting economic growth and development in taxing statutes should be liberally construed and restriction placed on it by way of exception should be construed in a reasonable and purposive manner so as to advance the objective of the provision.12. We find that the object of granting exemption from payment of sales tax has always been for encouraging capital investment and establishment of industrial units for the purpose of increasing production of goods and promoting the development of industry in the State. If the test laid down in Bajaj Tempo Ltd. case (1992) 3 SCC 78   is applied, there is no doubt whatever that the exemption granted to the respondent from 9-8-1985 when it fulfilled all the prescribed conditions will not cease to operate just because the capital investment exceeded the limit of Rs 3 lakhs on account of the respondent becoming the owner of land and building to which the unit was shifted. If the construction sought to be placed by the appellant is accepted, the very purpose and object of the grant of exemption will be defeated. After all, the respondent had only shifted the unit to its own premises which made it much more convenient and easier for the respondent to carry on the production of the goods undisturbed by the vagaries of the lessor and without any necessity to spend a part of its income on rent. It is not the case of the appellant that there were any mala fides on the part of the respondent in obtaining exemption in the first instance as a unit with a capital investment below Rs 3 lakhs and increasing the capital investment subsequently to an amount exceeding Rs 3 lakhs with a view to defeat the provisions of any of the relevant statutes. The bona fides of the respondent have never been questioned by the appellant.18. Similarly, in Pondicherry State Coop. Consumer Federation Ltd. v. Union Territory of Pondicherry (2008) 1 SCC 206   this Court held:5. Learned Senior Counsel Shri Venkatraman appearing for the appellant assessee submitted that this question was no more res integra and was covered by the judgment of this Court in Vadilal Chemicals Ltd. v. State of A.P. (2005) 6 SCC 292.  It was pointed out that in that case an identical question fell for consideration under the similar circumstances. There also, the question was as to whether the small-scale industry which was engaged in bottling of anhydrous ammonia could be said to be entitled to the exemption from payment of sales tax on the ground that it was manufacturing such goods since there was a general exemption offered by the Andhra Pradesh Government by GOMs No. 117 dated 17-3-1993 to the small-scale industry. There also it was found on inspection that the assessee industry was allowed irregular tax exemption on the first sales of anhydrous liquefied ammonia as it was found that the commodity that was purchased and sold was one of the same and there was no new commodity that had emerged and that the assessee had only done bottling of ammonia. The show-cause notices were issued to the assessee in that case suggesting therein that the activity of bottling/packing of gases into unit containers from bulk quantities was not recognised as manufacture even under the Central Excise Act. In that view the question which fell for consideration before this Court was as to whether under the circumstances the assessee could claim the exemption. This Court firstly held that the exemption certificate was granted by the authorities after due consideration. It was then noted that though the exemption was available on the products manufactured in industrial units, the interpretation put forth by the authorities on the word manufacture was incorrect. This Court took the view that the authorities had based the interpretation of word manufacture on the law relating to excise and that it was erroneous to do so. It was observed that in the State Sales Tax Act there was no provision relating to manufacture and the concept was to be found only in the 1993 G.O. which had provided the exemption. The Court further took the view that the exemption was granted with a view to give a fillip to the industry in the State and also for the industrial units of the State. The Court, therefore, took the view that a liberal interpretation of the term manufacture should have been adopted by the State authorities, more particularly, when the State authorities had granted the certificate of eligibility after due consideration of the facts.6. In our view the law laid down in this decision is applicable to the present case on all fours. Here also the authorities had firstly certified the assessees industry to be small-scale industry and had then proceeded to grant exemption to it from payment of sales tax on the goods manufactured. The said certificate was not found to have been erroneously issued and was very much in vogue when the show- cause notices came to be served on the assessee. The G.O. providing exemption clearly suggested that such exemption was given in the public interest. Therefore, it is obvious that the decision in Vadilal Chemicals case (2005) 6 SCC 292   would be equally applicable as even in that case what the industry did was to bottle the ammonia gas purchased in bulk. In the present case it is palmolive oil which is purchased in bulk and is repacked so as to facilitate its sale in the retail market.7. Shri T.L.V. Iyer, Senior Advocate appearing on behalf of the Union Territory of Pondicherry, however, tried to suggest that the exemption from payment of tax granted on 19-5-1989 was granted by the Director of Industries and it was clear from that exemption that it was only on the basis of GOMs No. 15/74 dated 25-6-1974. Our attention was invited to the last lines of the aforementioned G.O. dated 19-5-1989. The last portion is as under:The unit is exempted from payment of sales tax for five years vide GOMs No. 15/74/FIN(CT) dated 25-6-1974.On this the learned Senior Counsel argued that, therefore, it had to be proved that the goods were manufactured by the assessee and in the present case since the palmolive oil did not change its character on its being repacked by the assessee, it could not be said that the assessee had manufactured any goods. Learned counsel also urges that in the absence of any definition of manufactured goods in the Sales Tax Act, we would have to fall back upon either the dictionary meaning of the term or to borrow it from the Central Excise Act. We are afraid, the contention cannot be accepted in the wake of clear law laid down by this Court in Vadilal Chemicals case (2005) 6 SCC 292.  We have already shown as to how the decision in that case is applicable to the present situation. In that view we are of the clear opinion that since in the present case the exemption was granted to all small- scale industrial units registered with the Director of Industries and since the assessee was recognised and certified as a small industrial unit, engaged in the activity of repacking of edible oil and further since the exemption was granted with the open eyes to this particular industry, the State cannot be allowed to turn around and take a stance that the appellant assessee was not entitled to the exemption on the ground that it did not manufacture any goods. We are in respectful agreement with the view taken in Vadilal Chemicals case (2005) 6 SCC 292   which is more particularly reflected in paras 19 and 20 of that decision where this Court observed as under: (SCC p. 298, para 20)20. In this case the State Sales Tax Act contains no provision relating to manufacture. The concept only finds place in the 1993 G.O. issued by the Department of Commerce and Industries. It appears from the context of the other provisions of the 1993 G.O. that the word manufacture had been used to exclude dealers who merely purchased the goods and resold the same on retail price. What the State Government wanted was investment and industrial activity. It is in this background that the 1993 G.O. must be interpreted. (See CST v. Industrial Coal Enterprises (1999) 2 SCC 607 ). The exemption was granted in terms of the 1993 G.O. the thrust of which was to increase industrial development in the State.8. We respectfully agree with the aforesaid observations and would choose to take the same view by accepting the contention of the appellant that a liberal view of GOMs No. 15/74 dated 25-6- 1974 would have to be taken. We accordingly allow the appeal, set aside the order passed by the High Court and restore that of the Tribunal but without any order as to costs.20. Likewise, even under the Customs Act, this Court in Commr. of Customs (Preventive) v. M. Ambalal & Co. (2011) 2 SCC 74 made a clear distinction between exemptions which are to be strictly interpreted as opposed to beneficial exemptions having as their purpose - encouragement or promotion of certain activities. This case felicitously put the law thus follows:16. It is settled law that the notification has to be read as a whole. If any of the conditions laid down in the notification is not fulfilled, the party is not entitled to the benefit of that notification. The rule regarding exemptions is that exemptions should generally be strictly interpreted but beneficial exemptions having their purpose as encouragement or promotion of certain activities should be liberally interpreted. This composite rule is not stated in any particular judgment in so many words. In fact, majority of judgments emphasise that exemptions are to be strictly interpreted while some of them insist that exemptions in fiscal statutes are to be liberally interpreted giving an apparent impression that they are contradictory to each other. But this is only apparent. A close scrutiny will reveal that there is no real contradiction amongst the judgments at all. The synthesis of the views is quite clearly that the general rule is strict interpretation while special rule in the case of beneficial and promotional exemption is liberal interpretation. The two go very well with each other because they relate to two different sets of circumstances.22. A recent 5-Judge Bench judgment was cited by Shri Gupta in Commr. of Customs v. Dilip Kumar & Co. (2018) 9 SCC 1.  The 5- Judge Bench was set up as a 3-Judge Bench in Sun Export Corporation v. Collector of Customs 1997 (6) SCC 564   was doubted, as the said judgment ruled that an ambiguity in a tax exemption provision must be interpreted so as to favour the assessee claiming the benefit of such exemption. This Court after dealing with a number of judgments relating to exemption provisions in tax statutes, ultimately concluded as follows:66. To sum up, we answer the reference holding as under:66.1. Exemption notification should be interpreted strictly; the burden of proving applicability would be on the assessee to show that his case comes within the parameters of the exemption clause or exemption notification.66.2. When there is ambiguity in exemption notification which is subject to strict interpretation, the benefit of such ambiguity cannot be claimed by the subject/assessee and it must be interpreted in favour of the Revenue.66.3. The ratio in Sun Export case [Sun Export Corpn. v. Collector of Customs, (1997) 6 SCC 564 ] is not correct and all the decisions which took similar view as in Sun Export case stand overruled.23. It may be noticed that the 5-Judge Bench judgment did not refer to the line of authority which made a distinction between exemption provisions generally and exemption provisions which have a beneficial purpose. We cannot agree with Shri Guptas contention that sub-silentio the line of judgments qua beneficial exemptions has been done away with by this 5-Judge Bench. It is well settled that a decision is only an authority for what it decides and not what may logically follow from it (see Quinn v. Leathem [1901] AC 495  as followed in State of Orissa v. Sudhansu Sekhar Misra (1968) 2 SCR 154   at 162,163)24. This being the case, it is obvious that the beneficial purpose of the exemption contained in Section 3(1)(b) must be given full effect to, the line of authority being applicable to the facts of these cases being the line of authority which deals with beneficial exemptions as opposed to exemptions generally in tax statutes. This being the case, a literal formalistic interpretation of the statute at hand is to be eschewed. We must first ask ourselves what is the object sought to be achieved by the provision, and construe the statute in accord with such object. And on the assumption that any ambiguity arises in such construction, such ambiguity must be in favour of that which is exempted. Consequently, for the reasons given by us, we agree withthe conclusionsreached by the impugned judgments of the Division Bench and the Full Bench.25. The matter can also be seen from a slightly different angle. Where a High Court construes a local statute, ordinarily deference must be given to the High Court judgments in interpreting such a statute, particularly when they have stood the test of time (see State of Gujarat v. Zinabhai Ranchhodji Darji (1972) 1 SCC 233   at paragraph 10, Bishamber Dass Kohli v. Satya Bhalla (1993) 1 SCC 566   at paragraph 11, Duroflex Coir Industries Ltd. v. CST 1993 Supp (1) SCC 568 at paragraph 2, State of Karnataka v. G. Seenappa 1993 Supp (1) SCC 648 at paragraph 3 and Bonam Satyavathi v. Addala Raghavulu 1994 Supp (2) SCC 556 at paragraph 4). This is all the more applicable in the case of tax statutes where persons arrange their affairs on the basis of the legal position as it exists.