SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Before:- S.P. Bharucha and Mrs. Ruma Pal, JJ.

Civil Appeal Nos. 1073-1077 of 1999. D/d. 8.2.2000.

C.V. and Co. etc. - Appellant

Versus

State of Kerala - Respondent

Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, Schedule I, Entry 138 - Sales Tax - Tractor-trailer covered under Entry 138 of Schedule I - No distinction can be made between the tractor-trailers on the ground that one are slow-moving trailers and others are fast-moving trailers or otherwise.

[Para 1]

JUDGMENT

That for earlier years the Board of Revenue and the State Government had taken a different view did not bar the Sales Tax authorities from taking the present view for the assessment year in question and that view has been upheld by the authorities and the High Court. We find no material on the record which would justify our making a distinction between tractor trailers which the appellant manufacture and other kinds of trailers on the ground that the former are slow moving trailers and the latter are fast moving trailers or otherwise. Therefore, all trailers would fall within the scope of Entry 138 of the first Schedule to the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, as amended with effect from 16th September, 1980. Even read as taking its colour from the words surrounding it, we find that "trailers" therein would encompass all trailers that are drawn on wheels and are adjuncts to vehicles that are powered by engines.

2. The appeals are dismissed. No order as to costs.

Appeal dismissed.