The central legal point established in the judgment is that the classification of goods for the purpose of levy under the state Sales Tax Act should be based on the common parlance meaning of the term, emphasizing the use of the goods as a guiding principle.

JAGANNATHA SHETTY, J.

( 1 ) A short but an important question that arises for consideration in these appeals is :

"whether teleprinter rolls, adding machine rolls and computer out-put papers, etc. , could be classified as 'paper', within the scope of entry 125 of the Second Schedule to the Karnataka Sales tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') ?"

( 2 ) THE appellant is a limited company having its head office at Calcutta. It has branch offices in many States dealing in teleprinter rolls, addition machine rolls, computer out-put papers and printed stationery. For the assessment year 1973-74, the turnover returned by the assessee-company was assessed by the assessing authority at the rate prescribed under section 5 (1) of the Act. But, subsequently, the assessing authority reassessed the turnover under section 12-A of Act, levying the tax at the rate prescribed under entry 125 of the Second Schedule. Similar assessment was made on the turnover returned by the assessee for the assessment year 1974-75.

( 3 ) CHALLENGING the order of assessment for the year 1973-74 and also the order of assessment for the year 1974-75, the assessee appealed to the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes. The deputy Commissioner allowed both the appeals and directed uniform levy under section 5 (1) of the Act. But the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes in exercise of his suo motu revisional jurisdiction under section 22-A of the Act, reversed the orders of the Deputy Commissioner and restored that of the assessing authority.

( 4 ) THE principal question that was debated before the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes relates to the nature of the goods sold by the assessee. It was urged that the goods in question were in the nature of "continuous stationery" and as such, the sale turnover was liable to be taxed under section 5 (1) of the Act. But the Commissioner did not accept that contention. He observed that the goods were made of paper and used for printing purpose and since this fact has not been disputed by the assessee, the goods sold by the assessee should be regarded as "paper" attracting the levy prescribed under entry 125 of the Second Schedule.

( 5 ) ENTRY 125 of the Second Schedule, as it stood during the relevant period reads : "all kinds of paper including carbon paper but excluding paper falling under serial number 55. "It is not necessary to refer to the items enumerated under serial No. 55, referred to above, since it is not the case of the assessee that the commodity in question falls under serial No. 55.

( 6 ) MR. Shukla, for the assessee, has produced before us samples of the goods usually sold by the assessee. It will be seen that the teleprinter rolls is made up of paper interleaved with carbon paper. Adding machine roll is also made up of paper, but comparatively a smaller roll without carbon paper in between. The telex roll is a thick paper cut-out and rolled on a cone. The teleprinter rolls as the name goes is used for teleprinting. Adding machine roll is used in calculators for the purpose of producing added results. Mr. Shukla also produced before us for perusal the printed forms and punch-cards, which are made to order and supplied by the assessee-company as per the requirements of the concerned customers.

( 7 ) THE primary contention of Mr. Shukla is that the goods sold or dealt with by the assessee-company have been manufactured out of paper and they are not commercially known as "paper". They have got a limited use unlike the general use of paper and therefore, they cannot be classified as "paper", falling under entry 125 of the Second Schedule. Mr. Shukla also contended that the said goods have been classified under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 as the products manufactured out of paper, quite different from the ordinary paper for the purpose of levy of excise duty.

( 8 ) WE may, at the outset, state that the classification of the said goods for the purpose of levy under the Central Excise Act, f

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