JUDGMENT K.N. Misra, J.
1. The opposite party-assessee carries on business of manufacturing and selling, among other items, catguts-sutures. For the assessment year 1973-74 he disclosed his turnover at Rs. 3,82,405.27, which was accepted by the Sales Tax Officer, Lucknow, by the order dated 3rd March, 1975, passed under Rule 41(7) of the U.P. Sales Tax Rules and a tax at 3 per cent was levied on this turnover. Later on it transpired that the turnover had been assessed at a lower rate and the additional tax had not been assessed at all. Therefore, proceedings under Section 21 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, for short "the Act", were initiated. In the original assessment the said catguts-sutures were assessed at 3 per cent treating the aforesaid goods as falling under the category of medicine and pharmaceutical preparations". In the assessment order dated 26th November, 1977, passed under Section 21 of the Act, these goods were treated as surgical goods taxable at the rate of 7 per cent as unclassified items with effect from 1st December, 1973, and at 4 per cent prior to that date, and additional tax was also assessed. In respect of the assessment year 1974-75, the assessee had disclosed his turnover at Rs. 3,04,306.57 and vide order dated 3rd March, 1975, passed under Rule 41(7) of the Rules, the tax at the rate of 3 per cent was levied on the turnover in respect of the said goods, "catguts-sutures". Subsequently, proceedings under Section 21 of the Act were initiated and vide order dated 26th November, 1977, the said items were treated as surgical goods taxable at 7 per cent as unclassified items with effect from 1st December, 1973, and at 4 per cent prior to that date and the additional tax was also assessed. Similarly, in the assessment year 1975-76 the assessee had disclosed a turnover of Rs. 4,47,740.35. It was, however, not accepted and the Sales Tax Officer by order dated 3rd March, 1975, passed under Rule 41(7) of the Rules determined the turnover at Rs. 4,70,000. The tax was assessed at 6 per cent (5 per cent tax plus 1 per cent additional tax), treating the aforesaid goods as falling in the category of "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations". Subsequently, proceedings under Section 21 of the Act were initiated and vide order dated 4th November, 1977, these goods were treated to be surgical goods, taxable at 7 per cent as unclassified items with effect from 1st December, 1973, and at 4 per cent prior to that date. The rate of tax was enhanced accordingly. Against the above assessment orders, the assessee filed three appeals under Section 9 of the Act before the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial), Sales Tax, Lucknow. He also preferred an appeal against the order passed under Rule 41 in respect of the assessment year 1975-76 by which the return submitted was not accepted and the assessment was made at the enhanced turnover referred to above. All these appeals were heard and allowed by a common judgment and order dated 19th February, 1979, passed by the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial), Sales Tax. It was held that the catguts-sutures were covered under the category of medicine and pharmaceutical preparations". The assessment order passed under Section 21 of the Act in respect of the aforesaid three years was annulled and the tax assessed at the aforesaid enhanced rate was set aside. The account books in respect of the assessment year 1975-76 were also accepted and the turnover submitted by the assessee was accepted and the tax assessed at the enhanced turnover was reduced. Aggrieved by this order the department preferred four revisions which were heard and dismissed by the common judgment and order dated 7th May, 1980, passed by the Additional Judge (Revisions), Sales Tax, Lucknow.
2. It was urged on behalf of the revisionists before the said revisional authority that the learned lower appellate authority erred in accepting the turnover submitted by the assessee for the year 1975-76. It was further urged that the catguts-sutures have been wrongly held to fall within the category of "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations". These goods, therefore deserve to be assessed as unclassified items. Both these arguments were repelled by the Additional Judge (Revisions), Sales Tax. These orders have been challenged in the present revision.
3. As a common question of law is involved in these revisions the same were heard together and are being decided by the common judgment and order.
4. Learned standing counsel, Sri P.C. Verma, urged that these goods cannot be taken to fall under the category of "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations". These are surgical goods being substance used for stitching wounds and in surgical operations and since these do not cure and prevent any disease, they cannot be categorised as "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations".
5. In all these present revisions the sole question for consideration is as to what would be the rate of tax applicable to the catguts-sutures while determining the tax payable by the assessee on the taxable turnover in respect of the said goods. According to the learned standing counsel the catguts-sutures can be treated only as surgical goods which may be liable to be assessed to tax as unclassified items while on the other hand learned Counsel for the assessee, Sri Rajaram Agarwal, Advocate, urged that the catguts-sutures would fall under the category of "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations" and that the same have been rightly treated by the lower appellate authority as well as the Additional Judge (Revisions), Sales Tax, to fall under the said category and assessed as such.
6. I have perused the impugned order and have carefully considered the arguments advanced by the learned Counsel for the parties.
7. It is not disputed that under Section 18 of the Indian Drugs and Cosmetics Act, prohibition on the manufacture and sale and also on stocking and selling any drug or cosmetic in contravention of the provisions of the Act or any Rules made thereunder has been provided. A licence is required to be obtained for manufacturing or for selling or exhibiting for sale of any drug or cosmetic under the provisions of the Indian Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Rules framed thereunder.
Drug" has been defined under Clause (b) of Section 3 of the Act. It reads as under:
3. (b) 'Drug' includes--
(i) all medicines for internal or external use of human beings or animals and all substances intended to be used for or diagnosis or treatment, mitigation or prevention of any disease or disorder in human beings or animals; and
(ii) such substances (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the human body or intended to be used for the destruction of vermin, or insects which cause disease in human beings or animals, as may be specified from time to time by the Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette.
8. Rules have been framed by the Central Government under Section 12 of the Act. Rule 76 requires a licence to be obtained for manufacture and sale of drugs in Schedule C and C(1) issued in form 28. It also described the condition to be complied with by the licensee before a licence is granted or renewed. In Schedule C at serial No. 13 "sterilized surgical legature and sterilized surgical suture" are mentioned and thus for the manufacture of the sterilized surgical sutures a licence is required to be obtained. The sterilized surgical legatures and sutures have thus been treated to be drug for the purposes of the said Act.
9. The definition of the "drug" is comprehensive enough to take in not only "medicines" but also "substances" intended to be used for any treatment of diseases of the human beings or animals. The term "substances" appearing in Sub-clause (i) of Clause (b) of Section 3 of the Act, cannot be something other than medicines, but which are used for treatment. Such substances intended to affect the structure or any function in the human body or intended to be used for destruction of vermin or insects which cause diseases in human beings or animals are also covered by the definition of "drug" under the Act. The "catguts-sutures and sterilized surgical sutures" have been treated to be drugs under the said Act and a licence is required to be obtained for manufacturing and selling of these items.
10. The United States Pharmacopoeia and British Pharmacopoeia provide formula for the manufacture of absorbable surgical sutures (catguts) and these are prepared in accordance with the prescribed formula. It cannot be denied that catguts-sutures are used in stitching external and internal wounds in surgical operations and it thus provides surgical treatment in healing the wounds by joining disintegrated tissues of the affected body caused due to any accidental injury or in surgical operations.
11. The term "medicine" has not been expressly defined in Section 3 of the said Act but the "drug" defined under Clause (b) of Section 3 includes all "medicines" for internal or external use of human beings or animals in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of diseases.
12. In Webster's Dictionary (3rd Edition) "medicine" has been defined to mean " 'substance or preparation' used in treating diseases; the science and art dealing with the maintenance of health and the prevention, alleviation or cure of disease; sometimes: the branch of this field concerned with the nonsurgical treatment of disease--distinguished from obstetrics and surgery. A drug or similar substance (as a potion, poison or elixir) applied to nonmedical use...".
13. The term "surgery" has been defined in Webster's Dictionary to mean " 'a branch of medicine' that is concerned with diseases and conditions requiring or amenable to operative or manual procedures (orthopedic) (new techniques in brain) 2. the treatment of other than human ills or diseases by methods analogous to or as drastic as those of a surgeon...".
14. In Dorlands Medical Dictionary, the term "surgery" has been defined to mean "that branch of medicine which treats diseases, injuries and deformities by manual or operative methods...".
15. It Stedman's Medical Dictionary, the term "surgery" is defined to mean "the branch of medicine that is concerned with therapy of diseases of injuries by operations or manipulation.
16. In the same volume the term "medicine" is defined to mean: (i) A drug, (ii) the art of preventing or curing disease, the science that treats of disease in all its relations; (iii) the study and treatment of general diseases or those affecting the internal parts of the body, distinguished from surgery.
17. Referring to the definition of the term "medicine" narrated above, the learned standing counsel had urged that the "medicine" is distinguished from surgery, and, as such, the catguts-sutures which are used as "substance" in the surgical operations or in stitching wounds, cannot be treated to fall in the category of "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations".
18. Having given my anxious consideration to the matter, I am unable to pursuade myself to accept this contention of the learned standing counsel. It appears to be beyond doubt that "surgery" is the branch of medicine that is concerned with therapy of diseases or injuries by operation or manipulation.
19. In the authoritative book Penguin Medical Encyclopedia "catgut" is stated to be fibrous layer of sheeps' intestine, toughened with chromic acid. Catgut ligatures are easy to handle, and they are slowly digested in the tissues, finally disappearing without trace. "Suture" is the surgical stitching, or material used for it. Cotton or linen threads have been used for centuries. "Catgut" popularised by Lister, is broken down in the tissues and disappears. The disappearance of the "suture" does not weaken the repair, because no suture is more than a splint to facilitate healing by living tissue. The sterilized absorbable catgutsutures (USP) are used in surgical treatment as hemostatic covering for surgical wounds to control haemorrhage when other conventional methods are impractical or ineffective. As in the non-surgical treatment a "drug" is given for curing the diseases and ailment in the body, so is the case in surgical treatment where catguts-sutures are utilized in stitching the wound which prevents its decay and assists in healing and in the process it dissolves in the treated (sic) merely a surgical apparatus and would fall in the category of "medicines" and pharmaceutical preparations.
20. In Rashtra Deep Laboratory, Firozabad v. Commissioner of Sales Tax [1983] 53 STC 419 (All.), Honourable V.K. Mehrotra, J., observed:
The concept of medicine is not static. It is a changing concept linked with the advancing human knowledge and its endeavour to alleviate human suffering. It is also changing with the change in social thinking of a community with a view to solve its problems. Thus viewed, the term 'medicine' cannot be confined within the traditional concept of an article which, by itself, is enough to cure a human ailment.
In Berry v. Henderson (1870) 5 QB 296, it has been observed:
The word 'medicine' is comprehensive enough to include everything which is to be applied for the purposes of healing, whether externally or internally.
21. In view of the above, I find that the medicine is a substance or preparation used in treating diseases. The modern scientific "medicine" in all its branches include surgery and obstetrics. In view of the rapid advancement in medical science, the treatment of diseases and bodily injuries and deformities, etc., is also made, apart from giving drugs orally, by surgical operation and the sterilized absorbable surgical sutures are commonly used for stitching the surgical wounds in order to control haemorrhage and in the process of healing wounds these are absorbed in the tissues of the body. The catguts-sutures are duly manufactured in accordance with the United States pharmacopoeia standards and are being treated as drug under the Indian Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
22. In Ishwar Singh v. State of U.P. AIR 1968 SC 1450, it has been held by the Honourable Supreme Court:
The scheme of Clause (i) of Section 3(b) apparently is to take in all medicines or substances with the exception of such medicines or substances which are exclusively used or prepared for use in accordance with the Ayurvedic or Unani System of medicine.
23. The catguts-sutures have been treated to be "drug" under the Indian Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, as already observed above and these are used in surgical treatment preventing decay and controlling haemorrhage in the process of healing wounds. It would thus fall in the category of "medicine and pharmaceutical preparations". In my opinion the catguts-sutures are remedial agents in preventing haemorrhage and assisting in healing wounds. It, therefore, cannot be treated to be a surgical apparatus or appliance and would fall in the category of medicines whether it is traditionally known or not as such. In common parlance the persons in trade dealing with its manufacture and sale also treat it in the category of medicines. The surgeons and patients purchase it for being used in stitching the wounds and for no other purpose because in fact it cannot be utilized for any other purpose, except for stitching the wounds. It has been brought on record that a Directorate of Medical Health, Uttar Pradesh Government, have also treated catguts-sutures as medicine while placing the order with the dealer-assessee for its supply to be made for uses in the hospitals.
24. In view of the above, I find that no error has been committed by the appellate and revisional authorities in treating catguts-sutures to fall in the category of medicine and pharmaceutical preparations. The impugned orders, therefore, do not suffer from any error of law so as to call for interference by this Court in exercise of revisional power under Section 11(1) of the Act.
25. In the result, these revisions are dismissed being devoid of merits. No order as to costs.