Case: State Of West Bengal &amp; Ors Vs. Washi Ahmed Etc

If it is covered by this description, it would be exempt from sales tax imposed under the provisions of that Act. The sales tax authorities held that green ginger is used to add flavour and taste to food and it is, therefore, not vegetable commonly known as "sabji, tarkari or sak". The orders of the sales tax authorities were challenged in a writ petition filed under article 226 of the Constitution and a single Judge of the High Court, who heard the writ petition, disagreed with the view taken by the sales tax authorities and held that green ginger is "vegetable" within the meaning of that expression as used in item 6 of the First Schedule to the Act. This view of the learned single Judge ([1967] 20 S.T.C. 254.) was affirmed by a Division Bench of the High Court on appeal under clause 15 of the Letters Patent. Hence the present appeal by the State with special leave obtained from this Court.

Court's reasoning:
It is interesting to note that the same principle of construction in relating to words used in a taxing statute has also been adopted in English, Canadian and American courts. Pollock, B., pointed out in Grenfellv. Inland Revenue Commissioners ((1876) 1 Ex. D. 242 at248.) that"if a statute contains language which is capable of being construed in a popular sense such a statute is not to be construed according to the strict or technical meaning of the language contained in it, but is to be construed in its popular sense, meaning of course, by the words "popular sense", that sense which people conversant with the subject-matter with which the statute is dealing would attribute to it"3. It will, therefore, be seen that the word "vegetable" in item 6 of Schedule I to the Act must be construed as understood in common parlance and it must be given its popular sense meaning "that sense which people conversant with ther with which the statute is dealing would attribute to it" and so construed, it denotes those classes of vegetables which are grown in a kitchen garden or in a farm and are used for the table. Now, obviously green ginger is a vegetable grown in a kitchen garden or in a farm and is used for the table. It may not be used as a principal item of the meal but it certainly forms part of the meal as a subsidiary item. It is an item which is ordinarily sold by a vegetable vendor and both the vegetable vendor who every day deals in vegetables and the housewife who daily goes to the market to purchase vegetables would unhesitatingly regard green ginger as vegetable. The assessee in fact placed evidence before the sales tax authorities showing that the railway authorities also treated green ginger as vegetable for the purpose of railway tariff and charged for the carriage of green ginger at the reduced rate applicable to vegetables and even the Corporation of Calcutta included green ginger in the category of vegetables in the market bulletin published by it fortnightly showing the rates in the municipal market. There can, therefore, be little doubt that green ginger is generally regarded as included within the meaning of the word "vegetable" as understood in common parlance. That apart, we find that item 6 speaks not simply of vegetables but "vegetablescommodity known as sabji, tarkari or sak" and the Division Bench of the High Court held green ginger to fall within the meaning of the words "sabji, tarkari or sak". We should certainly be very slow to disturb a meaning placed on these words in Bengali language by two Judges of the High Court who may reasonably be expected to be quite conversant with that language.We are accordingly of the view that green ginger is included within the meaning of the words "vegetablescommonly known as sabji, tarkari to sak" in item 6 of Schedule I and its sales must be held to be exempt from tax under section 6 of the Act.