KADIPROL, being not directly fed to Poultry/Birds cannot absolutely treated as ‘Poultry Feed’: Supreme Court [Read Order]

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has held that KADIPROL, being not directly fed to Poultry/Birds cannot absolutely treated as “Poultry Feed” and may be treated as “Drug and Medicine.”

The department preferred an appeal before the Supreme Court against the High Court order wherein the Court delivered a ruling in favour of the dealer holding that the product “KADIPROL” sold by the respondent can be categorized as “Poultry Feed” falling under Entry 25 of Schedule I of the Gujarat Sales Tax Act.

Earlier, the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax has held that the product KADIPROL would be covered as “Drug and Medicine” under Entry 26(1) of Schedule II Part A of the Gujarat Sales Tax Act.

The dealer contended that when they preferred an application for license before the Food and Drugs Control Administration, the Authority under the Act, 1940 informed the respondent that the license for manufacturing of product “KADIPROL” under the Act was not required.

Justice M R Shah and Justice Sanjiv Khanna observed that the product was not meant to be given as a food to the poultry.

“It was required to be mixed with the feed given to the poultry/birds. It cannot be directly fed and/or given to the birds. Therefore, there is some merit in the contention of the Revenue that the impugned judgment and order does not deal with the reasoning given by the Tribunal,” the Court said.

“It merely quotes and relies upon the two decisions in the case of Glaxo Laboratories (India) Ltd. (supra) and M/s. Pfizer (India) Ltd. (Supra) without a detailed and an indepth examination of the facts as found. Therefore, usually in the aforesaid background, we would have remitted the matter to the High Court for a fresh decision. However, we are not inclined to pass an order of this nature as it is accepted that the issue in question is of academic interest and even if we decide the appeal in favour of the Revenue, it would not have any revenue implication as there are no tax dues,” the Apex Court said.

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