BEVERLEY ESTATES LIMITED Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE questions referred by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Madras "B" Bench, for the opinion of this court in these two tax cases relating to the same assessee, are the following : T.C. No. 326 of 1974:

(2.) T.C. No. 328 of 1974 :

(3.) FOR the assessment years 1970-71 and 1972-73, the assessee filed returns admitting receipt of Rs. 40,480 by sale of shade trees and a sum of Rs. 1,320 by sale of bamboos, respectively, and contended that they were agricultural capital receipts and not assessable to capital gains tax. But in view of the AAC's order relating to the assessment years 1967-68 and 1969-70, the ITO rejected the assessee's contention and treated 60 per cent. of the sale proceeds in each of the two assessment years as capital gains liable for assessment to capital gains tax. On appeal, the AAC rejected the assessee's contention in view of the Tribunal's orders relating to the earlier assessment years 1967-68 and 1969-70 but, however, fixed the capital gains at 55 per cent, of the sale proceeds in each of the assessment years 1970-71 and 1971-72 on the ground that the average girth of the trees sold in these years was more than that of the trees sold in the two earlier years. In the assessee's further appeal, the Tribunal followed its own earlier view in the appeal relating to the assessment years 1967-68 and 1969-70 and confirmed the order of the AAC but reduced the capital gains to 50 per cent. of the sale proceeds in each of the assessment years 1970-71 and 1971-72.