AMBALA COACH BUILDERS Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IF bus bodies mounted on motor chassis fall within entry 1 of Schedule A of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, they are chargeable to sales tax at the rate of 10 per cent. If they do not fall within that entry, they are chargeable to sales tax at the rate of 6 per cent. Entry 1 is as follows : Motor vehicles, including accessories and chassis of motor vehicles, motor tyres and tubes and spare parts of motor vehicles.

(2.) THE meaning of the expression "accessories" was considered by the Supreme Court in Annapurna Carbon Industries Co. v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1976] 37 S. T. C. 378 (S. C. ). The Supreme Court said : A sense in which the word 'accessory' is used is given in Webster's Third New International Dictionary as follows : 'an object or device that is not essential in itself but that adds to the beauty, convenience, or effectiveness of something else'. Other meanings given there are : 'supplementary or secondary to something of greater or primary importance'; 'additional'; 'any of several mechanical devices that assist in operating or controlling the tone resources of an organ'. 'accessories' are not necessarily confined to particular machines for which they may serve as aids. The same item may be an accessory of more than one kind of instrument.

(3.) IT is difficult to treat the bus bodies mounted on motor chassis as accessories. They are integral parts of motor vehicles. As pointed out by Pathak, J. , in Commissioner of Sales Tax, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow v. Pritam Singh [1968] 22 S. T. C. 414 : To function as a conveyance, the motor vehicle must be capable of accommodating the passengers or carrying the goods intended to be conveyed. If it functions as a stage carriage, it must have a body designed to accommodate passengers. If it is intended to function as a carrier of goods, it must be designed to carry goods. Unless it is so designed, it is incapable of ordinarily discharging the purpose for which it is intended. There can be no dispute that in order to serve that purpose effectively it is necessary for a motor vehicle to have a body mounted on it. The design of that body will vary according to whether the motor vehicle is intended to convey passengers or goods. But a body there must be and unless there is a body it is not possible to say that a motor vehicle as understood in the popular or commecial sense has come into being. A motor and chassis on wheels is an incomplete motor vehicle: It cannot be employed for the purpose for which motor vehicles are normally intended. It needs something more to complete it and that something is an appropriate body mounted and fitted on the chassis.