The term "wireless reception instrument and apparatus" is a technical term of comprehensive nature and shall encompass in its ambit all goods which answer to the functional test of wireless reception.

SANTOSH DUGGAL, J.

This sales tax reference has been made by the Appellate Tribunal, Sales Tax, Delhi, at the instance of the assessee, M/s. Televista Electronics (P) Ltd., Okhla Industrial Estate, New Delhi. The questions that have been referred for the opinion of this Court pertain to the assessment year 1974-75, and are as follows :

1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that television sets were covered by entry No. 4 of the First Schedule appended to the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, as extended to Delhi ?

2. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that T.V. cabinets, decorative panel, turn knobs, printed circuit boards and boards were component parts and accessories of "wireless reception instruments and apparatus" within the meaning of these terms in entry No. 4 of the First Schedule appended to the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, as extended to Delhi ?

The dispute primarily is as to the rate of sales tax, chargeable in respect to one category of finished goods marketed by the assessee, namely, television sets, the assessee being engaged in the manufacture of T.V. sets, tape-recorders, calculators, calculators and transistors, etc. The statement of facts further reveals that the assessee being a registered dealer, purchased certain parts required for the manufacture of T.V. sets against the registration certificates without payment of requisite sales tax. The liability to pay sales tax on these items arose because of the provisions of second proviso to section 5(2)(ii) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, as extended to Delhi (for short "the Act"), for the reason that the parts which the assessee purchased on the strength of the registration certificates could earn exemption from sales tax only if they were intended for resale in the Union Territory of Delhi or had been purchased for use as raw material in manufacture of goods, in the Union Territory of Delhi. It appears that a certain number of T.V. sets, for the manufacture whereof parts as enumerated in question No. 2 had been used, were sent for sale outside the Union Territory of Delhi and for this reason the department raised the demand by invoking the provisions of the second proviso to section 5(2) of the Act, which lays down that in case the goods are not utilised by the registered dealer for the purpose declared while making tax-free purchases, these shall form part of taxable turnover of the purchasing dealer. This is how the liability to pay sales tax has fallen on the assessee, in respect to television cabinets, decorative panels, turn knobs, printed circuit boards and boards, etc.

In so far as the first question is concerned, the assessee has contested the rate of sales tax as applied by the department. The contention is that T.V. sets manufactured by them do not fall in any of the entries of the First Schedule to the Act, as applicable at the relevant time, and as such the lower rate of sales tax as envisaged by section 5(1)(c) would be payable. The implication is that by virtue of the provisions of section 5(1)(a), the rate of sales tax for goods specified in the First Schedule is 10 per cent of the taxable turnover, whereas goods which are neither specified in the First nor in the Third Schedule, the rate of sales tax is 5 per cent under sub-section (1)(c) of section 5.

For proper appreciation of the contentions canvassed on behalf of the assessee, it will be expedient to extract the relevant entries of the First Schedule at different points of time so as to put the controversy in proper perspective. The first period is from 1st December, 1956, to 30th September, 1959. The relevant entry, reads as under :

"3. (a) Wireless reception instruments and apparatus and component parts thereof including all electrical valves, accumulators, amplifiers and loudspeakers which are not specially designed for purposes other than