Case Comment: Ramavatar Budhaiprasad Etc. V. Assistant Sales Tax Officer, Akola
- IJLLR Journal
- 25 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Muskan Jain, UPES, Dehradun
INTRODUDCTION
The Ramavatar case was a landmark ruling by the supreme court that shaped the understanding of a very common yet most disputed term ‘Vegetable’. It all started with a question that whether betel leaves were to be considered as a vegetable for the purpose of tax under the statute of C.P and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947. This question was considered as troublesome for a very long time for the Indian Tax Authorities and business therefore a clarification was needed on this aspect whether to read the word fruits and vegetables in a broad dictionary sense or in the narrower sense of ordinary speech. In other words does the interpreter interprets as a botanist or a customer in the market.
In this judgement the court finally adopted the ‘common parlance’ or ‘popular sense’ test This meant tax terms are to the understood in a way a common man understands and not in a way an expert would. Thus, a dispute about just betel leaves turned out to be landmark because of three broad reason-
1. It fixed the understanding of tax exemptions.
2. It laid down the interpretative methodology.
3. It established court’s own writ jurisdictions over tax matters.
FACTS
The petitioners in the Budhaiprasad case were a group of small traders belonging to a small village in Madhya Pradesh. They were engaged in buying and selling of betel leaves (also known as paan ka patta). These leaves are not used in everyday cooking as a kitchen staple but are chewed after the meal.
