STATE OF MADRAS, REPRESENTED BY THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURAL INCOME-TAX, BOARD OF REVENUE Vs. BALMADIES PLANTATIONS LIMITED, NADUVATTAM P O , MANAGING AGENTS, MANAGING AGENCIES PRIVATE LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since an identical question of law arises for determination in each of these applications, preferred by the State under the Madras Agricultural Income-tax Act (V of 1955), to which we shall refer in the rest of this judgment as the Act, we shall dispose of the applications by a single judgment. In each of these cases the assessee claimed that the sum he paid his employee--in some cases that employee was designated the manager and in others as superintendent--as bonus in the relevant year of account was a permissible deduction under Section 5 (e) of the Act. That claim was upheld by the Tribunal, and the correctness of that decision was challenged by the Department. The main contention of the learned Advocate-General who appeared for the petitioner, Department, was that Section 5(1) of the Act was the only statutory provision under which the assessee was entitled to deduction of payments of bonus, and, as admittedly the claim of the assessee in each of these cases did not fall within the scope of Section 5(1) of the Act, the claim of the assessee should be negatived.

(2.) The relevant Sub-sections of Section 5 of Act V of 1955 are:

(3.) To understand the scope of the statutory expression "worker", we have to refer to the relevant provisions of the Plantations Labour Act, LXIX of 1951. Section 2 (k) of Act LXIX of 1951, provides the statutory definition of worker: