COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. MADHABHAI H PATEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THOUGHT the Tribunal has made only one reference for the three assessment years, viz., assessment years 1967 -68, 1968 -69 and 1969 -70, we have though it proper to separate this reference into three references as they pertain to three separate assessment orders and the question raised and referred arises out of three separate orders passed in three separate appeals by the Tribunal. The question, which is referred to this court under section 256(1) of the Income -tax Act, 1961, is as under :

(2.) THE assessee is the owner of land admeasuring acres 3.22 gunthas situated in village Paldi which is now within the limits of the Ahmedabad city. Till 1967, it bore S. No. 25/1. From November 1, 1967, because of the TP Scheme framed and finalised under the Bombay Town Planning Act, 1954, the reconstituted areas of that land was given Final plot No. 136. Originally, the land was acres 3.22 gunthas and after it was reconstituted in a final plot, it became a plot of 13,740 sq. yards. On December 18, 1963, the assessee entered into an agreement with Himatlal Jayantilal and Co. for sale of the said land bearing S. No. 25/1. As the sale deed could not be executed within two months as per the terms of the agreement, the said agreement was cancelled. Thereafter, on May 14, 1966, the assessee again entered into an agreement to sell the entire land to Messrs. Caravan Corporation. The land was to be sold at the rate of Rs. 20 per sq. yard. Pursuant to the said agreement, the land was, in fact, sold in three lots : the first sale took place on March 31, 1967 the second on December 5, 1967, and the third on June 25, 1968.

(3.) THE assessee was not satisfied with the assessment order passed by the Income -tax Officer. He preferred three separate appeals to the Appellant Assistant Commissioner. Considering the character of the land as agricultural, the Appellant Assistant Commissioner allowed the three appeals.