TROPICAL PLANTATIONS LTD. Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant Company is engaged in the activity of running a plantation, growing rubber, tea and coffee. According to the appellant, the wood of the rubber trees is used only as a fuel or for packing cases, and not for the purpose of construction of building or for repair to any structure. That rubber plantation after certain period becomes old and uneconomical. For the purpose of replantation, such old rubber trees were sold as live standing rubber trees in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreements entered into with the purchasers. Such standing rubber trees which were affixed to the ground were to be uprooted and removed by the purchasers only after a period of 24 to 60 months. Further, that the rubber trees could not be considered to be "timber" within the meaning of Explanation 1(ii) to Section 2(xxvii) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 (for short "the Act").

(2.) This matter had come up earlier before this Court in State of Kerala v. Tropical Plantation Ltd., 1999 3 SCC 720. The orders passed by the High Court as well as the Tribunal were set aside and the cases were remitted back to the Tribunal for a fresh decision on the point as to whether "rubber trees are timber for the purposes of levy of sales tax under the Act". The order of remand passed by this Court is reproduced below: (SCC p. 721, paras 1-4)

(3.) The Tribunal, instead of deciding the question on which the cases were remitted to it, went at tangent and proceeded to decide the appeals on a totally different point i.e. as to "whether the rubber wood would be timber or not". The basic question, as to whether the standing rubber trees would be timber or not, was not even touched upon.