The Commissioner Of Agricultural Income-Tax v. The Calvary Mount Estates (Private)

3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURAL INCOME-TAX THE CALVARY MOUNT ESTATES (PRIVATE) LTD. (J. L. KAPUR, M. liIDAYATULLAH and J. c. SHAH, JJ.) Agricultural Income Tax'-Rubber Plantation-Expenditure on immature trees-Whether permissible deduction-Madras Plan-tations Agricultural Income-tax Act, I955 (Mad. V of I955l. s. 5(e). The assessee owned an Estate of 590 acres out of which 235 acres were occupied by immature non-bearing rubber trees, for the maintenance and upkeep of which the respondent claimed expenses from out of the income, which was allowed both by the Agricultural Income Tax Tribunal and the High Court. The appellant came up by special leave. Held, that the provisions of s. 5(e) of the Madras Planta-tions Agricultural· Income Tax Act,· 1955 (Mad. V of 1955). applicable to the present case, and those of s. 5(j) of the Travan-core-Cochin Agricultural Income Tax Act, 1950 (Tr. Co. XXII of 1950) being the same, the judgment in Travancore Rubber & Tea Co. Ltd. v. The Commissioner of Agricultural Income-tax, Kerala, in which the question of deductibility of sums expended for pur-poses of forking, manuring etc. of immature rubber trees had been decided, will govern this case. Travancore Rubber©- Tea Co. Ltd. v. The Commissioner of Agricultural Income-tax, Kerala, [1961] 3 S.C.R. 279, applied. CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 145 of 1960. Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated March 18, 1958, of the Kerala High Court in Tax Revision Case No. 12 of 1957. V. A. Seyid Mu1ia·mad and Sardar Bahadur, for the appellant. O. K. Daphtary, Solicitor-General of India, Thomat1 Vellapally, 8. N. Andley, J.B. Dadachanji, Rameshwar Nath and P. L. Vokra, for the respondent. 1960. December 15. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by December 15. 196° KAPUR, J.-This is an appeal by' special leave -. . against the judgment and order of the High Court of The o.r 1 A Commossrnna gricu . It ur:1 1 }T >cera J ' a m T ax d R ev1s10n ' ' , N o. 12 f 1957 o , Income-tax The respon ent who IS the assessee owned an estate v. of 590 acres in South M11labar district, now in Kerah nc Calvary Sta.te. Out of that area 85 acres were covered by Pep-~fount Estate> per, Arecanut, Paddy and Coconut cultivation while (Prfratc) Ltd. the rest i.e. 505 acres had rubber plantations upon it. Kapur J. Of that area 235 acres were occupied by immature non-bearing rubber trees and 270 acres had m11ture rubber trees. The assessment relates to the year 1955-56, the accounting year being the year ending March 31, 1955. The respondent claimed from out of the income expenses relating to the m11intenance and upkeep of immature non.bearing rubber trees. The Agricultural Income tax Tribunal held that the expenses incurred on the whole area under rubber plant11tions were deductible expenses and remanded the case for ascertaining the expenses incurred in fork-ing and manuring of the "non-bearing and immature" rubber grown areas also. The appellant then prefer-red a revision application to the High Court under s. 54(1) of the Madras Plantn,tions Agricultural Income Tax Act, 1955 (Mad, V of 1955), The High Court held that the amount spent on the upkeep and maintenance of immature rubber trees was a deductible expenditure under s. 5(e) of that Act which provides: S, 5 "Computation of agricultural income: The agricultural income of a person shall be computed after making the following deductions, namely:- •••••'""'''''''''''''•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••"••••••••••••••••• (e) any expenditure incurred in the previous year (not being in the nature of capital expenditure or personal expenses of the assessee) laid out or expend-ed wholly and exclusively for the purpose of the plantation;",