LAWS(GAU)-1953-8-1

JYOTIKANA CHOWDHURANI Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

Decided On August 10, 1953
JYOTIKANA CHOWDHURANI Appellant
V/S
COMMISSIONER OF INCOME-TAX, ASSAM. Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE references under Section 66(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act (Act XI of 1922 as amended up to date) raise an important and interesting question of law, namely, "whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of this case, the receipts from the sale of sal trees can be said to be agricultural income under Section 2(1) and are exempt from taxation under Section 4(3) (viii) of the Income-tax Act".

(2.) THE relevant facts leading to this reference, as found in the statement of the case submitted by the Tribunal, are that the applicants Nos. 1, 2 and 3, namely, Jyotsna Nath Chowdhury, Kamal Krishna Chowdhury, and Birendra Narayan Chowdhury, are some of the co-sharers of a zamindary property known as Mechpara Estate. Applicant No. 4, Jyotirindra Narayana Sinha Chowdhury, who is since dead and in whose place his heirs have been substituted before this Court, was a co-sharer in another zamindary called Parbatjoar Estate, whereas the applicants in items Nos. 5 to 7, Sourindra Narayan Chowdhury, and applicant No. 8, Sulochona Chowdhurani, are co-sharers in both the abovementioned estates, Mechpara and Parbatjoar.

(3.) THE Tribunal considered that the word "agriculture", with reference to the Indian Income-tax Act, should be taken to mean only those kinds of operations which were limited to tilling of the soil or to acts of planting or sowing; but could not possibly cover the case of forests of natural and spontaneous growth where there was no human skill or labour employed in the actual cultivation of the soil itself. It accordingly disallowed the exemption claimed by the assessees. It also appears to have been urged by the assessees that the money received from the sale of the trees was not really a revenue receipt but capital receipt. But in view of various decisions to the contrary, the point was advisedly abandoned.