STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs. O P ALIYAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS case has to be disposed of with a mere reiteration of the order of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal (Main Bench), Madras - 1.

(2.) A question arose whether the blue metal jelly obtained by conversion of the bigger stone boulders into smaller stones of varying sizes would be subjected to purchase tax under section7-A of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act or not. The assessee-respondent was subjected to such a tax, on a reading in section7-A of the Act that the process under which the bigger stone boulders were converted into smaller stones of varying sizes and blue metal jelly thus obtained was manufacture using stones for the creation and preparation of blue metal jelly. Recounting of the entire ordeal of the assessee of going through every stage of the legal proceeding until the appeal before the Tribunal is not necessary. The Tribunal, however, had in a short, but effective, order held that the process of converting the bigger stone boulders into smaller stones of varying sizes is not a manufacture through which blue metal jelly is obtained. The Tribunal has referred to a decision in Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax (Law), Board of Revenue (Taxes) v. Pio Food Packers 1978 (6) CTR 104, 1978 (41) STC 364, 1978 KLT 279 (Ker) and other authorities on the subject. Corpus Juris Secundum, volume 55, at page 685, explained the term "manufacture" thus :