The judgment of the Court was delivered by

MEHTA, J. - At the instance of the assessee, the Gujarat Sales Tax Tribunal has referred the following question to us for our opinion under section 69 of the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969 :

"Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal is justified in holding that kathi purchased and used by the applicant for packing of the goods for sale was not purchased and used as consumable stores in the process of manufacture of goods for sale ?"

The assessment period with which we are concerned in this reference is S.Y. 2028. The assessee is carrying on the business of manufacturing crockery and carborundum and is selling the same as a registered dealer under the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969. The assessee had purchased kathi (twine) worth Rs. 12,867 on the certificate that the said article was required for use in the manufacture of goods for sale. The article in question was used for the purpose of packing goods manufactured by the assessee and sold thereafter. The Sales Tax Officer levied purchase tax on purchase of the said article in question under section 16 of the Act and he was of the opinion that those goods could not have been purchased on certificate since they were not raw materials, processing materials or consumable stores required for use in the manufacture of the goods in question. He also levied penalty at the rate of 10 per cent. of the purchase tax under section 45(1)(a) of the aforesaid Act. The assessee carried the matter in appeal before the Assistant Commissioner and the Sales Tax Tribunal with no avail. The contention of the assessee was rejected since, in the opinion of the Appellate Commissioner as well as the Tribunal, the Articles in question were neither raw materials nor processing materials nor consumable stores which could be purchased under section 13(1)(B) of the said Act on a certificate in form No. 19. The assessee, therefore, sought the reference to this Court which was granted accordingly.

At the time of hearing of this reference, the learned Advocate appearing for the assessee urged that the Tribunal committed an error of law in ascribing a very limited meaning to the term "in the manufacture of taxable goods for sale" prescribed by the legislature in section 13(1)(B) for entitling a manufacturer to purchase raw or processing materials or consumable stores with that end in view, tax-free, on furnishing a certificate under section 13(1)(B). In the submission of the learned Advocate, it would not have been commercially possible for the assessee to manufacture taxable goods for sale without the use of the articles in question and that it is not necessary that such articles should necessarily be required strictly for the purpose of producing a finished product. On the other hand, on behalf of the revenue, this contention was sought to be repelled by urging that the legislative intent has been clearly evinced in section 13(1)(B) that all those articles, which are more or less in the nature of packing materials, cannot be purchased by a manufacturer since they are neither raw materials nor processing materials nor consumable goods and this intent is clearly manifest if the comparison is made with the corresponding provision contained in section 12(1)(b) of the earlier Act, namely, the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, where a manufacture was entitled to purchase raw materials and packing materials required by him for use in the manufacture of goods for sale as tax-free on furnishing the prescribed certificate. It was further urged on behalf of the revenue that the article in question cannot in any case be said to be consumable stores without violence to the language since the words "consumable stores" in section 13(1)(B) should and must take colour from the preceding words, namely, "raw or processing materials" and it would be unwarranted in the language employed by the legislature to enlarge the meaning of the term "consumable stores"