LexUNION OF INDIA AND ORS. versus GUJARAT WOOLLEN FELT MILLS
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A B c D E F G 472 UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. v. GUJARAT WOOLLEN FELT MILLS April 7, 1977 [M. H. BEG, C.J., A. C. GUPTA AND P. S. KAILASAM, JJ.] . Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944-Schedule I Entry 21-Non-woven felts 1nan1.:'faptured out of ·v.·oollen fibres by machine pressing, whether "woollen (cbncs' for the purpose of levy of excise duty-Rule of interpretat!on of items 111 a statute. 1 An excise duty o~ Rs. 550~~.87 was. levied and collected from tl?-e respon- uent-firm by the Excise authont1es ·treating the non-woven felts manufactured by ~hem as "'••oollen fabrics" covered by entry 21 in Schedule I to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944. The Gujarat High. Court allowed the writ petition filed by the respondent and held that the respondent's products were not "woollen fabrics" and directed the refund of th~ entire sum collected as excise duty. Dismissing the appeal by certificate to this Court, JIELD : ( 1) The well-known ·rule in interpreting items in statutes is that resort should be had not to the scientific or the technical meaning of such terms but to their popular meaning or the meaning attached to them by those dealing in them, that is to say, their commercial sense. [474 A-B] · Commissioner of Sales Tax, .Madhya Pradesh, Indore v. M/s. lalwant Singh . Charan Singh, AIR 1967 SC -1454, applied. . (2) Fabric means woven mater'ial. Entries 19 to 22 in the Schedule de31 v;ith fabrics. Entry 21 describes woollen fabrics as meaning all varieties of fabrics manufactured out of \Vool, barring the exceptions mentioned, including blankets, lohis, rugs, shawls and embroidery in the piece in strips or in motifs. The word ••fabric" in entry 21 has been used to mean woven material in \Vhich s1~nse it is popularly understood._ The term "woollen fabrics" in that sense was not wide. enough to cover non-woven material which is \VOOl-based. Blankets. rugs and sha··.vls etc. have been spccifica11y included in the entry out of abundant caution to indicate that '\vooTJen fabrics" in entry 21 means not only woo11en garments but also woollen m~ter'.al used as covering or for similar other pur- poses. [473 H, 474 F-GJ (3) It is plain from entry 21 in·Schedule I to the -Central EXcises and Salt Act, 1944 that the respondent's products did no_t fall within it as they are non- \\'Oven felts from wooUen fibres. [474 C] ' CIVIL APPELLATE·- JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 1037 of 1971. (From thei Judgment and Order dated the 17th June, 1971 of the Gujarat High Court in Special Civil Application No. 112/67). V. P. Raman, Addi. Sol. Genl. and Girish Chandra, for the appellants. G. N. Dikshit and R. N. Dikshit, for the respondent. . The Judgment of the Court was delivered by GUPTA, J.-The respondent is a partnership firm manufacturing II non-woven felts from woollen fibres which -are utilised for the pur- pose of filtration in heavy industries. Between August 25, 1965 and January 5. 1967 the Excise authorities compelled the re'spondent to pay Rs. 55,055/87 p. as excise duty o_n its products. The respondent y t . ."" ) .I UNION V. GUJARAT WOOLLEN FELT MILLS (GUPTA, J.) 473 filed a writ petition in the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad for A quashing the order levying excise duty on the felts manufactured by the respondent treating them as 'woollen fabrics' covered by entry 21 in Schedule I to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (herein- after 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 B appeal on certificate of fitness granted by the High Court questioning the correctness of the decision. The only question in the appeal is whether the felts manufactured by the respondent are "woollen fabrics" within the meaning of entry 2 I in the first schedule to the Act. The writ petition describes the process of manufacture and states that the thickness of the felts produced varies from 1 mm. to 50 mms. according to the specification of the customers and that these are really machine pressed raw wool- waste. It is stated further that the felts manufactured _by the process described are neither sheets nor fabrics, they arc not material from which garments could be prepared nor they could be used as covering c or for similar other purposes. E
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