Page 129 - GSTL_23rd April 2020_Vol 35_Part 4

2020 ] IN RE : WATER HEALTH INDIA PVT. LTD. 455
applicable for all the types of water enumerated in the entry. The term “water sold
in sealed container” should be read in conjunction with words “purified, mineral,
distilled et” and it should not be read as a separate sentence/clause.
17. Honourable Supreme Court in the case of S.G.Glassworks Private
Limited v. Collector of Central Ex., Nagpur, 1994 (74) E.L.T. 775 (S.C.) held that the
word ‘and’ by itself may have been susceptible of giving rise to the argument
that it was another condition to be satisfied in the first mould itself. But it having
been used before the word ‘where’ it is disjunctive and lays down another re-
quirement for a glassware to be produced by the use of semi-automatic process
to be entitled for exemption.
18. We find that in ordinary usage ‘and’ is conjunctive. From the well-
known dictum of the Supreme Court that grammar is a good guide to meaning
but is a bad master to dictate, it will appear that there is no hard and fast rule as
to the meaning of the word ‘and’ and this word gets its proper meaning from the
particular context from which it has been used. Author Maxwell on the Interpre-
tation of Statutes, p. 244 (Edn. 9) referred by the Honourable Allahabad High
Court in the case of Sukhnandan v. Suraj Bali and stated as follows :
“fundamental principle of construction is that the words used in a Statute
must be understood in their ordinary grammatical sense. It is clear that, in
that sense, the word “and” is used as a conjunction. This will, however, not
prevent the Court from departing from the ordinary grammatical meaning
of a word if it appears, from the context or a consideration of the other pro-
visions of the Statute that it was the intention of the Legislature to give it
another meaning. Similarly, if the ordinary grammatical meaning of a word
results in creating an absurdity or an anomaly or of rendering the legisla-
tion of no effect, a narrower or a broader meaning may be given to the
word or it may be construed in such a way as to obviate the absurdity or
anomaly on the principle that it could not have been the intention of the
Legislature to create absurdities or anomalies or to render its enactments of
no effect. In such a situation the word “and” may well be construed in a
disjunctive sense and be read as “or”.
19. Applying the above said principle to the instant case that the word
‘and’ used before the ‘water sold in sealed container’ in the Sl. No. 99 of Notifica-
tion No. 2/2017-Central Tax (Rate), dated 28-6-2017 is disjunctive nature and lays
down that ‘water sold in a sealed container’ is the another type of water excluded
from the said entry along with the aerated water, mineral water, purified water,
distilled water, medicinal water, ionic water, battery water, de-mineralized wa-
ter. Therefore, supply of purified water whether in sealed container or unsealed
container not entitled for GST exemption as the purified water excluded from the
Sl. No. 99 of Notification No. 2/2017-Central Tax (Rate), dated 28-6-2017. Thus
supplying of purified drinking water to the general public in an unsealed con-
tainer is not entitled for exempt from GST.
20. Hence the following ruling :
RULING
21. The supply of purified drinking water to public in empty unsealed
cans is not entitled for exemption from GST.

_______

GST LAW TIMES  23rd April 2020  249