Judgment

SABYASACHI MUKHARJI, J. :- (Minority view):- Under G.O. No. 1764 dated 5-4-1960, as amended on 22-12-1960, issued under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, fresh fruit and vegetable are exempt from the levy of sales tax. Whether ripened coconut with or without husk can be considered to be vegetable is the question in these appeals.

2. I respectfully agree with my learned brother Tulzapurkar J. that principles to be adopted in deciding that question are well settled i.e. in interpreting items in statutes whose primary object is to raise revenue and for which purpose they classify diverse products, articles and substances, resort should be had not to the scientific and technical meaning of the terms or expressions used, but to their popular meaning, that is to say, the meaning attached to them by those dealing in them. Fresh fruit or vegetable has not been defined in the Act.

3. My learned brothers have come to the conclusion that it cannot be disputed that ripened coconut will not be A fresh fruit in terms of the said notification, I respectfully agree. But my learned brothers have also found that ripened coconut cannot be considered to be vegetable, I am not so sure on this aspect. Whether ripened coconut can be considered to be a vegetable or fruit in any part of India will depend upon the evidence available. Tastes vary, habits differ and food served, prepared and consumed at the tables in different parts of the country also vary. Therefore, it is safer not to rest our decision on our subjective ideas, if possible. I, however, respectfully agree with the conclusion reached by my learned brothers that the appeals should be dismissed.

4. It is well settled that it is for the assessee who claims exemption to adduce evidence that a particular article is an exempted item and if he cannot or if he fails to do so, then the revenue may proceed on its basis. In such a situation, the assessee should have such an opportunity. We cannot foreclose such an opportunity. We cannot categorically say that ripened coconut could never be considered to be vegetable. But in this case the assessee has adduced no evidence. In the premises, the assessee must fail and I respectfully agree with the order proposed by my learned brothers.

TULZAPURKAR, J. (For himself and on behalf of Ranganath Misra, J.) 5. Whether a coconut (neither tender nor dried but a ripened coconut with or without husk) is a "fresh fruit" or a "vegetable" so as to earn exemption from the levy of sales tax under G. O. No. 1764 dated 5-4-1960 as amended on 22-12-1960 issued under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 is the question raised in these appeals.

6. The High Court has held that under the aforesaid notification the Government had exempted "all sales of vegetables (other than the dried and dehydrated vegetables), fresh fruits, betel and plantain leaves, flowers, eggs, meat and fish (other than canned meat and fish)" from the levy of sales tax under the 1959 Act but since a ripened coconut in which the appellant was dealing as a grocer, could not be regarded as a "fresh fruit" or a "vegetable" the appellants sales turnover in coconuts in each of the Assessment Years 1967-68, 1968-69 and 1969-70 was liable to sales tax and includible in his taxable turnover. It is this view of the High Court which has been challenged before us by counsel for the appellant-assessee.

7. The canon of construction to be invoked in these types of statutes has been repeatedly enunciated in several decisions of this Court but it is not necessary to refer to all of them. In Indo International Industries v. Commr. of Sales Tax, Uttar Pradesh (1981) 3 SCR 294 this Court ruled thus :

"It is well settled that in interpreting items in statutes like the Excise Tax Acts or Sales Tax Acts, whose primary object is to raise revenue and for which purpose they classify diverse products, articles and substances resort should be had not to the scientific and technical meaning of the terms or express