The property which can be transferred from one place to another is movable property. Section 12(36) of the General Clause Act, 1847 defines “movable property” as “Movable property shall mean the property of every description except immovable property”. As per the Transfer of Property Act 1882, movable Property is those properties that are not immovable. Section 22 of the Indian Penal Code 1860, defines movable property as, ‘The words “movable property” are intended to include corporeal property of every description, except land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything which is attached to the earth’. In the case of State of A.P vs. National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. AIR 2002 SC 1895 held that the definition of “Goods” in Article 366(12) of the Constitution of India was very wide and included all kinds of movable properties.
Section 2(26) of the General Clause Act, 1847 defines immovable property as “Immovable property shall include land, benefits to arise out of the land, and things attached to the earth, or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth”. The meaning of “attached to the earth” is found in Section 3 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 where it is defined to mean (a) rooted in the earth, as in the case of trees and shrubs (b) imbedded in the earth as in the case of walls or buildings (c) attached to what is imbedded for the permanent beneficial enjoyment of that to which it is attached. In the case of Quality Steel Tubes Ltd. Vs. Collector 1995 (75) ELT 17 (SC) wherein the supreme court was called upon to decide whether a tube mill and welding head which were erected and installed by the appellant to form part of a tube mill were excisable. It was held that the goods which are attached to the earth & thus become immovable do not call as goods as per the meaning under the act. However the supreme court in Sirpur Paper Mills Ltd. Vs. CCE 1998 (97) ELT 3 (SC), held that assembly of a paper making machine and its erection at site mainly from bought out components and by fabricating the rest of the parts at site amounts to manufacture. This decision caused a considerable amount of re-thinking as to what constitutes immovable property. The Bombay high court in Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Vs. UOI 2005 (192) ELT 92 (Bom), held that trusses, columns, and purlins made by cutting/drilling/welding steel channels, angles, plates, and erecting them on concrete columns with nuts and bolts whereby they became part of structure embedded to earth being immovable property.