The bench, comprising justices SH Kapadia, next in line to be the chief justice, and Aftab Alam, concluded that it was not a puzzle, and therefore liable to excise duties.
Is it a toy, is it a game or is it a puzzle? The Supreme Court — on which fell the task of determining whether the manufacturers of Scrabble are liable for excise duties — spent considerable time grappling with the definition of ‘toy’, ‘game’ and ‘puzzle’, and whether the word game falls in the category of an educational toy.
The bench, comprising justices SH Kapadia, next in line to be the chief justice, and Aftab Alam, concluded that it was not a puzzle, and therefore liable to excise duties.
The court was hearing a legal suit where toys and games manufacturers Pleasantime Products and Funskool sought a levy exemption maintaining that Scrabble was a puzzle. The excise authorities had demanded about Rs30 lakh from both between 1996
and 2001.
Both the concerns use the registered brand Scrabble, owned by UK-based JW Spears & Sons Ltd. The dispute was over whether the word game is classifiable under sub-heading 9503.00 or sub-heading 9504.90 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise and Tariff Act, 1985.
The manufacturers maintained that Scrabble wasn’t an educational toy in any event and relied on dictionary meanings to show that it was just a puzzle. They also produced affidavits of purchasers of Scrabble to prove that it was a toy used to impart education to children, but is treated as a puzzle by adults.
The bench went to great lengths to find out the appropriate definition of Scrabble and accessed leading dictionaries and perused the precedents to determine the truth. They concluded that the word game was “not a puzzle”. The judges also cited another difference between a ‘game’ and a ‘puzzle’ while rejecting the companies’ appeal.
Keeping the three distinct features of outcome, clue-chance and skill in mind, the the court said in a puzzle the outcome is pre-determined. It is not so in Scrabble. For example, in crosswords, the outcome is pre-determined or fixed. There is a grid of squares and blanks into which words crossing vertically or horizontally are written according to clues.
Similarly, a jigsaw puzzle is a contrivance for testing ingenuity. There is a set of varied, irregularly shaped pieces, which when properly assembled form a map or picture. These are examples to demonstrate that in a puzzle the outcome is fixed or pre-determined which is not so in Scrabble.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}