HIGH LAND PRODUCES COMPANY LIMITED Vs. INSPECTING ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURAL INCOME TAX AND S T SPECIAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A common question arises in all these cases. The petitioners are companies owning tea gardens in the State of Kerala. The tea leaves grown in their gardens are processed in their factories for the preparation of black tea. The tea thus produced is sold by them in the market. They say that the preparation of tea is by a process leading from agriculture to manufacture, the various stages of which are described by them as follows :

(2.) THE companies are assessed both under the I.T. Act, 1961 (the "Central Act") and the Agrl. I.T. Act, 1950 (Act XXII of 1950) (the "State Act"). THE petitioners say that they are aggrieved by the deletion of the Explanation to Section 2(a)(2) of the State Act by Section 2 of the Agrl. I.T. (Amend,) Act, 1980. Section 2 of this Amendment Act reads :

(3.) BEFORE I examine the omitted Explanation and the provisions of Section 2 of the State Act defining agricultural income, I shall briefly refer to the constitutional grant of legislative competence to the State to assess agricultural income.