Law: Income Tax Act, 1922

Section: 2(1),4(3)(viii)

Income-tax Act (XI of 1922), S. 2(1) "Agricultural income, ­Income from sale of trees growing spontaneously-Whether "agri­cultural income"-Income-tax Act (XI of 1922), S. 4(3) (viii). Held, that the term "agriculture" has been used in the Act in a narrow sense and so interpreted, it means that an operation to be agricultural must involve or be connected with the cultivation of the soil. Cultivation means tilling of the soil, and if that has not been done then there must be skill and labour spent on the land already cultivated. The word "agriculture" is not used in the Act in its extended dictionary meaning. All that appeared to have been done in this case was that after the coppice has established itself by natural growth, the operations carried on in the forests consisted in (a) weeding and cutting, (b) fencing or pruning, (c) burning of leaves, and (d) protection against grazing. Held, that these were not agricultural operations. In some cases of forestry however, there is cultivation, for instance where the trees are planted for the first time, but it cannot be said that the expression (forestry) is synonymous with "agri­culture", as,: there are cases of forests of spontaneous growth, where there is no cultivation of the soil at all, but only operations of forestry employed subsequent to the sprouting of the produce in order to foster the growth of plants into matured forest trees. If the intention of the legislature was that even such subsequent operations, which do not involve cultivation should by themselves be regarded as agricultural it would have included the word "forestry" in the definition of "agricultural income". Raja Mustafa Ali Khan v. The Commissioner of Income Tax P L D 1948 P C 259 and Commissioner of Income Tax West Bengal v. Raja Benoy Kumar, Sahas Roy 32 I T R 446 rel. Sm. Jyotikana Choudhurani and others v. I. T. Commissioner, Assam A I R 1954 Assam 113 and Benoy Ratan Banerji v. The Commissioner of Income Tax U. P., C. P. and Berar 15 I T R 98 ref. Gopal Das Choudhury v The Commissioner, Agricultural Income Tax East Bengal 4 P L R 439 (Dacca series); Com­missioner of Agricultural Income Tax West Bengal v. Raja Jugdish Chandra Deo Dhabel…

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