The main legal point established in the judgment is that statutes are presumed to use words in their popular sense, and the interpretation of terms in taxing statutes should consider popular connotation and commercial sense.

1. The only question to be decided in this Tax Revision Case is whether "cuttlefish" is a variety of fish. If the answer is in the affirmative, the petitioner's turnover to the tune of Rs. 16,75,814/- will stand exempted from tax liability under the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 (for short'the Act'). Otherwise the petitioner is liable to pay sales tax on the said turnover. As per notification published by the Government of Kerala under S.10 of the Act "fresh fish" is exempted from tax liability (vide item No. 23 in Schedule I of notification S.R.O. No. 342/63).

2. For the assessment year 1975-76 the Salestax Officer, IIIrd Circle, Quilon upheld the petitioner's claim for exemption of turnover for the sale of cuttlefish. But subsequently the same officer initiated proceedings under S.19 of the Act to redetermine the turnover of the petitioner, since he felt that the exemption was wrongly granted. As per his order dated 28-2-1980 the Salestax Officer assessed the petitioner to salestax for the turnover of the sale of cuttlefish, since the officer took the view that cuttlefish is not fish. The order was confirmed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Agricultural Incometax and Salestax, Quilon. The petitioner took up the matter before the Salestax Appellate Tribunal, but the Tribunal agreed with the aforesaid finding and dismissed the second appeal. Hence this revision by the petitioner.

3. The learned counsel contended that fish includes all marine products and cuttlefish being undisputedly a marine product should have been exempted from tax as "fresh fish". Marine products will include all kinds of species living in the sea. Hence it is too wide a range to determine the ambit of fish.

4. Another contention is that even the very word "cuttlefish" denotes that it is a variety of fish as its ending syllable is fish. The Appellate Tribunal has indicated the danger in accepting the aforesaid argument by pointing out that "there are several varieties of marine creatures, like star fish, jelly fish etc., where also the word fish is used, but, admittedly, they do not come under what is popularly understood as fish". Merely because the ending syllable of the word cuttlefish is synonymous with the word fish, a meaning that it is a variety of fish cannot be attributed. Examples are too many to be cited to indicate the perniciouscess in assuming a meaning for a word merely on the strength of its synonymity with another word.

5. The learned Government Pleader sought to bolster up his argument, that cuttlefish is not fish, on lexicographical references. But the learned counsel for the petitioner contended that dictionary meaning should not be resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining the true import of the items of articles catalogued in taxing statutes. Such items, according to the learned counsel, should be understood only by the popular connotation or in commercial sense. In support of the above contention the learned counsel cited the Full Bench decision of the Kerala High Court in Krishna Iyer v. State of Kerala (13 S. T. C. 838). The word "vegetables" in item No. 27 of Schedule I to the General Sales Tax Act, 1125 was the subject matter of discussion in the said decision. Their Lordships stated that:

"It is not the dictionary meaning of a term that will invariably prevail in the construction of a statute. The rule of interpretation in such cases is that particular words used by the Legislature in the denomination of articles should be understood according to the common commercial understanding of the term used and not in their scientific or technical sense, for the Legislature does not suppose our merchants to be naturalists, or geologists or botanists".

In arriving at the said conclusion reliance was placed on the decision of the Supreme Court in Ramavatar Budhaiprasad v. The Assistant Sales Tax Officer (12 S.T.C. 286) where also the endeavour was to find out the contours of the word 'vegetables'. The same principle