The judgment established the principle that specific instances mentioned in a legal provision are exhaustive and should be strictly interpreted.

Judgment

S.H. KAPADIA, J. - Leave granted.

2. A short question which arises for determination in this civil appeal is whether "dog feed" and "cat feed" sold by the appellant assessee attracts nil rate of duty under Entry 5 of the First Schedule of the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). The said entry was inserted vide Karnataka Act 27 of 2005 with effect from 7 - 6 - 2005.

3. We quote hereinbelow Entry 5 of the First Schedule of the Act:

"5. Animal feed and feed supplements, namely, processed commodity sold as poultry feed, cattle feed, pig feed, fish feed, fish meal, prawn feed, shrimp feed and feed supplements and mineral mixture concentrates, intended for use as feed supplements including de - oiled cake and wheat bran."

4. According to the appellant, dog feed and cat feed are the products which would fall in the category of animal feed under Entry 5. According to the appellant, Entry 5 deals with animal feed, feed supplements, namely, processed commodity sold as poultry feed, cattle feed, pig feed, fish feed, fish meal, prawn feed, shrimp feed, feed supplements and. mineral mixtures. According to the appellant, the words poultry feed, cattle feed and pig feed, etc. are the specific instances of food supplements. According to the appellant, the word "namely" after the words "feed supplements" in Entry 5 shows that the legislature intended the words "feed supplements" to be confined to poultry feed, cattle feed, pig feed, fish feed, fish meal, prawn feed and shrimp feed. In other words, according to the appellant, animal feed and feed supplements are two expressions in Entry 5 which should be read disjunctively and not conjunctively. It is submitted that each of the aforesaid three categories of goods covered by Entry 5 is quite complete and independent in itself. That, meaning of the expression "and" appearing between first category and second category and between second category and third category is that in addition to first category, goods of second category and third category are also covered by the said entry. The aforesaid three categories of goods are all for feeding the animals and these have all been put under the said entry. Since the entry covered three categories of goods, in between each category the expression "and" was used to make it clear that in addition to first category, second category is also covered and in addition to second category, third category is also covered. The word "and" has been used in the sense of "also" or "as well as". It is further submitted that each of the three parts of Entry 5 mentioned above are quite independent of each other. Each part is complete by itself and is capable of operating independently. Thus, for instance, the first part covering animal feed is a. complete and stand - alone item capable of operating independently. Similar is the position in respect of second part and third part of the entry. None of these three parts depend upon each other in any way. It is further submitted that the punctuation mark "comma" (,) has been used in the said Entry 5 in - between different items covered by each individual category. Thus, the second category covers "feed supplements", namely, processed commodity sold as poultry feed, cattle feed, pig feed, fish feed, fish meal, prawn feed, shrimp feed and there is a comma preceding and after the word "namely" which qualifies the expression "feed supplements". With reference to use of expression "namely" in Entry 5 and its effect, the submission is: that the said expression "namely" has been used in the second category of goods covered by the entry. It has been used after "feed supplements" and its effect is that feed supplements covered by the entry are processed commodity sold as poultry feed, cattle feed, pig feed, fish feed, fish meal, prawn feed and shrimp feed; that the said word "namely" does not in any way qualify or relate to the goods of first category and third category. Animal feed is co