M/S. BANSAL WIRE INDUSTRIES LTD. AND ANR. versus STATE OF U.P. AND ORS.

Citation: [2011] 7 S.C.R. 416 · Decided: 26-04-2011 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: MUKUNDAKAM SHARMA · Disposal: Dismissed

Cited by 2 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

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B 
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[2011] 7 S.C.R. 416 
M/S. BANSAL WIRE INDUSTRIES LTD. AND ANR. 
v. 
STATE OF U.P. AND ORS. 
(Civil Appeal No.3605 of 2011) 
APRIL 26, 2011 
[DR. MUKUNDAKAM SHARMA AND 
ANIL R .. DAVE, JJ.] 
Central Sales Tax Act, 1956: 
s. 14(iv) - Restrictions on power of States to tax "declared 
goods" - Items mentioned in clause (iv) of s. 14 - Categories 
falling under "iron and steel" - Tax on sales of "stainless steel 
wire" - Held:"Stainless steel wire" is not covered under the 
D entry of "tools, all~ys and special steels" in entry no. (ix) of 
clause (iv) and, therefore, does not fall under "Iron and Steel". 
as defined under s. 14(iv) - "Stain.'ess steel wire" also cannot 
be read into item no. (xv) whfch reads as "wire rods and wires-
rolled, drawn, galvanized, aluminized, tinned or coated such 
E as by copper" - Expression "Wire rods and wires" which is 
mentioned in item no. (xv) would not and cannot cover the 
expression "tools, alloy and special steels" of entry no. (ix) nor 
it would refer to the expression "Iron and Steel" as each item 
used in entry nos. (ix) and (xv) are independent items not 
depending on each other at all - Hence, "stainless steel wire" 
F cannot be treated as a declared commodity under s. 14. 
Transformation of commercial commodity - Effect of -
Held: When one commercial commodity is, by manufacturing 
process etc., transformed Into another, it becomes a separate 
G commodity for sales tax purposes. 
Interpretation of Statutes: 
Plain interpretation - Held: When the language of the 
H 
416 
BANSAL WIRE INDUSTRIES LTD. AND ANR. v. 
417 
STATE OF U.P. 
statute is plain and unambiguous, the court must give effect A 
to the words used in the statute. 
Taxing statute - Held: In a taxing Act one has to look 
merely at what is clearly said and there is no room for any 
intendment - In a taxing statute nothing is to be read in, 
nothing is to be implied, one can only look fairly at the 
language used. 
Words and Phrases - Expression "that is to sayn as in 
s. 14(iv) of the Central Sales Tax Act - Meaning of. 
The appellant is a Public Limited Company engaged 
in the business of manufacture and sales of "stainless 
steel wires". According to it, "stainless steel wire", being 
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c 
a form of "Iron and Steel" is a declared commodity under 
clause(iv) of Section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, o 
and consequently in view of Section 15 thereof, no tax 
can be imposed on "stainless steel wire" in excess of 4%. 
In the instant appeals, the question which arose for 
consideratio·n was whether in view of Section 14 of the 
Central Sales Tax Act along with the qualifying words 
'that is to say' as used in clause (iv) of Section 14, 
"stainless steel wire" would fall under the category "tools, 
alloy and special steels of any of the above categories" · 
as enumerated in entry no.(ix) of clause (Iv) or under the 
category "wire rods and wires-rolled, drawn, galvanized, 
aluminized, tinned or coated such as by copper" as 
enumerated in entry no.(xv) of the same clause (iv). 
Dismissing the appeals, the Court 
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HELD:1. The Parliament can restrict powers of State 
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Government to tax "declared goods". Section 2(c) of the 
Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 defines "declared goods" as 
those declared under Section 14 of Central Sales Tax Act 
as 'goods of special importance in Inter State Trade or 
Commerce. Section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act gives 
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418 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2011) 7 S.C.R. 
A a list of such goods and Section 15 specifies restrictions 
on power of States to tax such goods. [Para 31] [432-D] 
2.1. In an earlier Supreme Court decision, the word 
"that is to say", as per Section 14 of the Central Sales Tax 
8 Act was considered and it was held that originally the 
expression "that is to say" was employed to make clear 
and fix the meaning of what is to be explained or defined 
and that such words are not used, as a rule, to amplify a 
meaning while re_moving a possible doubt for which 
C purpose the word "includes" is generally employed. In 
the context of Section 14 of the Central Act, this Court in 
the said decision held that the expression "that is to say" 
is used in Section 14 apparently to mean to exhaustively 
enumerate the kinds of goods in a given list. It was also 
held in the said decision that the purpose of an 
D enumeration in a statute dealing with sales tax at a single 
point in a series of sales would, very naturally, be to 
indicate the types of goods each 

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