The main legal point established is that 'Chuni' is not considered 'cattle feed' under the Orissa Entry Tax Act, 1999, based on the nature of the product, its use, and the statutory interpretation principles applied by the court.

JUDGMENT :

S. MURALIDHAR, J.

1. These revision petitions by the State of Odisha (‘Department’) seek to urge a common question of law for consideration, viz. “Whether ‘Chuni’ which is a by-product of ‘Dal’ i.e. pulses including broken pulses, its husk, chilka and dust can itself be considered ‘cattle feed’ which is ‘schedule goods’ within the meaning of S. No. 66 of Para-I of the Schedule attached to the Orissa Entry Tax Act, 1999 (OET Act)?”

2. The first of these revision petitions STREV 31 of 2011 arises from an order dated 5th February, 2011 of a Single Judicial Member of the Orissa Sales Tax Tribunal, Cuttack (Tribunal) dismissing the appeal of the State of Odisha thereby upholding the order dated 7th March, 2009 of the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax, Puri (DCST) holding that ‘Chuni’ does not come within the scope of the entry ‘cattle feed’ as it is only one of the raw materials for preparation of the cattle feed and, therefore, not amenable to entry tax.

3. The challenge in the next petition again by the Department i.e. STREV 19 of 2013 is to an order dated 5th January, 2013 of a Two-Member Bench of the Tribunal holding likewise. The other petitions by the Department are against orders of Single Member Benches of the Tribunal holding likewise.

4. The ground on which the plea of the Department has been negatived is that in terms of Section 26 of the OET Act, the manufacturer is to collect tax only towards sale of ‘finished products’. Therefore, ‘Chuni’ being a by-product is not liable to Entry Tax.

5. Mr. Sunil Mishra, learned Additional Standing Counsel for the Department, submits that another Single Member of the Tribunal had taken a contrary view by an order dated 19th August, 2010 while allowing the Department's appeals in the case of State of Orissa vs. M/s. Madanlal Agarwalla as well as batch of appeals, which included the very same Opposite Party in STREV No. 31 of 2011 (M/s. Geetashree Industries), which was for a different year and, therefore, either the matter should have been referred by the SJM to a Larger Bench or the said order should have been followed.

6. The Court finds that barring the Single Member order dated 19th August, 2010 in M/s. Madanlal Agarwalla (supra), all of the other orders of the Tribunal against which the present revision petitions have been filed by the State and which are subsequent orders (one of them by a Two-Member Bench) have consistently held that ‘chuni’ is by itself not cattle feed.

7. Nevertheless, the Court considers it appropriate to settle the issue since it may lead to unnecessary confusion if inconsistent orders were to be passed by the different Benches of the Tribunal.

8. The relevant entry which is at S. No. 66 of Part-I of the Schedule appended to the OET Act reads as under:

“66. Cattle feed, Prawn feed and poultry feed.”

9. The product, which is sought to be subject to entry tax, is admittedly ‘Chuni’ which is nothing but husk of pulses. It is a byproduct, which comes into existence during the process of manufacturing ‘Dal’ i.e. pulses. This is not in dispute. Also what is not in dispute is that ‘Chuni’ is not independently sold as ‘cattle feed’. It is used to make cattle feed. There are 17 other ingredients which go to make cattle feed apart from ‘Chuni’. These include De-oiled Rice bran, Maize, Jawar, Kuthi, Wheal bran cakes and De-oiled cakes (groundnuts), Till oil cake (black)/sunflower DOC/Soyabean DOC, Biri, Chuni, Moong chuni and molasses etc. This apparently was evident from a tender call notice published by Orissa State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation Ltd. (OMFED) in 2008.

10. Another indication was the list of exempted goods under Schedule-A of the Orissa Value Added Tax Act (OVAT Act). Chokad, which is nothing but husk of ‘Dal’ is shown at S. No. 3 of Schedule-A of the OVAT Act pertaining to exempt goods. Cattle feed has been separately mentioned with Chokad. In other words, both are not one and the same although Chokad could be an ingredient of cattle feed. This