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2. It is the admitted case in these appeals that the respondents purchase goat and sheep for slaughtering them and then sell the meat they get after such slaughter. It is also admitted that live stock will be goods within the meaning of the Kerala General Sales-tax Act (the Act for short). The respondents submitted nil returns claiming exemption on the sales turnover of meat and skin. Assessments were completed accepting these nil returns. Subsequently the assessees were informed that the purchase turnover of goats and sheep had escaped levy of tax under Section 5-A of the Act. After necessary hearing, assessment orders were passed, holding that the assessees converted the animals into meat by a manufacturing process, within the meaning of Section 5-A of the Act. The Appellate Officer and the Tribunal agreed with this finding of the assessing officer. The assessee took the matter before the High Court and challenged the assessment orders. The High Court quashed the assessment orders and held that the meat got after slaughtering the animals will not be 'other goods' within the meaning of Section 5-A. Hence these appeals by the State.

The Section speaks of three ingredients, the existence of which alone, will attract levy of tax. They are : (i) consumption of the goods (ii) process of manufacture involved and (iii) production of other goods. The question before us is whether these ingredients are present when goats and sheep are slaughtered and converted into meat for sale. The assessee's contention is that he is only processing live goat or sheep into mutton by killing them and cutting them into pieces and that in this process there was neither consumption nor a manufacture nor production of other goods . C

It cannot be doubted that pineapple f Nit when converted into slices does not lose its identity or becomes a new product. Both of them are known as pineapple in the commercial circle as also in common parlance. That is not the case here.

9. Considerable support was sought by the respondents from a decision of this Court in Chiranjit Lal Anand v. State of Assam & Anr., 1985 A.I.R. S.C. 1387. That case related to an item called 'meat on hoof'. In that case the dealer had submitted a tender to supply among others 'meat on hoof' to the Central Reserve Police Units within the State of Assam. In that case, the dealer was assessed for the purchase of meat on hoof which is a name used mainly by the military for a 'live goat'. The contention of the dealer was that since meet was exempted from sales tax by the Assam Act, 'meet on hoof' should also be exempted from assessment. This court after considering the contention in the peculiar facts of that case, held that meet on hoof would also come within the exemption and set aside the assessment, disagreeing with the High Court. In our view, the principle enunciated in that decision has to be applied only to the fact of that case because the goods involve in that case was 'meet on hoof' and meet was exempt from assessment under the Act. It would not, therefore, be proper to rely upon the said decision decided purely on the facts of that case in deciding the present cases. Here goats and sheep undergo a process viz., slaughtering, and then comes into existence meat, hides and skin by consuming the goat in the said process, the end product being something entirely different from the original goods. The High Court was, therefore, in error in holding that goat and meat are the same and that no consumption was involved in converting goats into meat. The High Court confused the issue when it said that "the meat exposed for sale is still of the goat and sheep". Nobody disputes that the meat is of the goat and of the sheep. What is to be seen is whether meat and goat are the same. The High Court fell in an error when it used the expression "meat of the goat" while discussing the facts of the case.