The Commissioner of Income-Tax, West Bengal, Calcutta Vs. Raja Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy [1957] INSC 55 (23 May 1957)
BHAGWATI, NATWARLAL H.
AIYYAR, T.L. VENKATARAMA KAPUR, J.L.
CITATION: 1957 AIR 768 1958 SCR 101
ACT:
Income Tax-Exemption-Income from sale of forest trees, if and when agricultural income-"Agriculture", Meaning ofIndian Income-tax Act (XI Of 1922), SS. 2(1), 4(3)(viii).
HEADNOTE:
The question for decision in this appeal by the Commissioner of Income-tax was whether a sum of Rs. 51,978 shown by the assessee in his return as income from his forest land was agricultural income within the meaning of S. 2(1) Of the Indian Income tax Act and was as such exempt from taxation under S. 4(3)(viii) of the Act. The forest was of spontaneous growth, 150 years old, and consisted of sal and piyasal trees. It was in parts denuded of trees from time to time by destructive elements and the assessee had to plant fresh trees in those parts. Considerable amount of human labour and skill had to be applied year after year for maintaining the 'forest, protecting the offshoots from the stumps of the trees that had been cut and sold and in reviving its denuded parts by fresh plantation. The staff employed by the assessee performed such operations as pruning, weeding, felling, clearing, cutting of channels, guarding the trees and sowing seeds by digging the soil in the denuded areas. The Income-tax Officer rejected -the assessee's claim of exemption and added a sum of Rs. 34,430 to the assessable income, allowing a sum of Rs. 17,548 as expenditure. The Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax confirmed the assessment. The Appellate Tribunal held that the sowing of seeds were few and far between and the income, derived as it was from jungle products, was not agricultural income within the meaning of the Act. The High Court took a contrary view, held that tillage of the soil was not essential, and the income was agricultural income as human labour and skill had been expended on the land itself and answered the question in favour of the assessee. No attempt was, however, made by the Income-tax Authorities to ascertain the income actually derived from the trees planted by the assessee, nor were any materials placed on the record from which its exact amount could be ascertained, but having regard to the magnitude of the expenditure shown by the assessee as against the total income this Court held that a substantial portion of it must have been derived from the trees planted by the assessee.
Held, that the income actually derived from the trees planted by the assessee was agricultural income within the meaning of 2(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act and no attempt having been 102 made to ascertain its exact amount and a fresh enquiry being undesirable after such a long lapse of time, the appeal must be dismissed.
The term 'agriculture'in S. 2(1)(b)(i) of the Indian Incometax Act connotes the entire and integrated activity of an agriculturist performed on the land in order to raise its produce and consists of such basic and essential operations, requiring human skill and labour on the land itself, as the tilling of the soil, sowing of the seeds, planting and similar operations on the land and such other subsequent operations, performed after the produce sprouts from the land, as weeding, digging of the soil around the growth, removal of undesirable under-growths, tending, pruning, cutting, harvesting and marketing. But these subsequent operations, if unconnected with the basic operations, cannot by themselves constitute agriculture. It is only when the land is subjected to such integrated activity, that :It can be said to be used for ,agricultural purpose' and its income called agricultural income within the meaning of the Act.
Case-law discussed.
Whatever is produced by such agriculture must be an agricultural product and the ambit of the term 'agriculture' cannot be confined merely to the production of grain and food for men and cattle but must extend to all products of the land that have some utility either for consumption or trade and commerce. Fruit and vegetable plantations, groves, pastures, articles of luxury such as betel, coffee, tea, spices, tobacco etc. or commercial crops like cotton, flax, jute, hemp, indigo etc. as also forest products such as timber, sal and Piyasal trees, Casuarina plantations, tendu leaves, horranuts etc., can come within its ambit.
Murugesa Chetti v. Chinnathambi Goundan, (1901) I.L.R. 24 Mad. 421 and Raja of Venkatagiri v. Ayyappa Reddy, (1913) I.L.R. 38 Mad. 738, disapproved.
Such an extended meaning of the term 'agriculture' and its processes and products can be tenable only where there is cultivation, which means the basic operations, and can never be dissociated from them. There is, therefore, no warrant for its further extension so as to include activities which are in some way connected with or dependent on land, such as breeding and rearing of livestock, dairy-farming, butter and cheese making and poultry farming.
Moolji Sicka & Co., In re,(1925) 10 T.C.341 and Commissioner of Income Tax v. K. E. Sundara Mudaliar, (1950) 18 I.T.R.
259, disapproved.
Although human labour and skill are required both in the performance of the basic as well as the subseqent operations, it is only in the case of the basic operations alone that such skill and labour can be said to have been spent on the land itself, and this distinction becomes important where they are disjointed and do 103 not form an integrated activity, as in the case of products of land that are of spontaneous growth where human skill and labour are spent merely in fostering the growth, preservation and regeneration of such products.
Judicial opinion is unanimous that products which grow wild on the land or are of spontaneous growth and do not involve any human skill or labour on the land, and all that the assessee has to perform in respect of them is only to collect them for consumption and marketing, are not products of agriculture and the income derived from them is not agricultural income within the meaning Of S. 2(1) Of the Act.
When, however, the assessee performs subsequent operations on these products of land, the nature of those operations will have to be determined in the light of the principles enunciated above.
Held further, that there is no basis for the argument that the demarcation of agriculture and forestry as separate heads of legislation in Entries 14 and 19 of List 11 of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution has the effect of making them mutually exclusive. Income from forestry coming within the definition of agricultural income' contained in S. 2(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act will be agricultural income under Entry 46 and thus fall within the purview of that Act.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 165 of 1954.
Appeal from the judgment and order dated May 27, 1953, of the Calcutta High Court in Income-tax Reference No. 35 of 1952.
G. N. Joshi and R. H. Dhebar, for the appellant.
Jyotish Chandra Pal and D. N. Mukherjee, for the respondent.
1957. May 23. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by BHAGWATI, J.-This appeal with certificate of fitness under s. 66A(2) of the Indian Income-tax Act (XI of 1922) is directed against the Judgment and order of the High Court of Judicature at Calcutta on a reference under s. 66(1) of the Act.
The respondent owns an area of 6,000 acres of forest land assessed to land revenue and grown with Sal and Piyasal trees. The forest was originally of spontaneous growth, "not grown by the aid of human skill and 104 labour" and it has been in' existence for about 150 years.
A considerable income is derived by the assessee from sales of trees from this forest. The assessment year in which this forest income was last taxed under the Indian Incometax Act was 1923-24 but thereafter and till 1944-45 which is the assessment year in question, it was always left out of account. The assessment for 1944-45 also was first made without including therein any forest income, but the assessment was subsequently re-opened under s. 34. In response to a, notice under s. 22(2) read with s. 34 of the Act, the respondent submitted a return showing the gross receipt of Rs. 51,978 from the said forest. A claim was, however, made that the said income was not assessable under the Act as it was agricultural income and was exempt under s. 4(3) (viii) of the Act. The Income Tax Officer rejected this claim and added a sum of Rs. 34,430 to the assessable income as income derived from the forest after allowing a sum of Rs. 17,548 as expenditure. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner confirmed the assessment and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal also was of opinion that the said income was not agricultural income but was income derived from the sale of jungle produce of spontaneous growth and as such was not covered by s. 2(1) of the Act. At the instance of the assessee the Tribunal referred to the High Court under s.
66(1) of the Act two questions of law arising out of its order, one of which was:
"Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of this case, the sum of Rs. 34,430 is "agricultural income" and as such is exempt from payment of tax under section 4(3)(viii) of the Indian Income Tax Act?" The Tribunal submitted a statement of case from which the following facts appear as admitted or established :
" (i) The area covered by the forest is about 6,000 acres, trees growing being Sal and Piyasal;
(ii)It is of spontaneous growth being about 150 years old.
It is not a forest grown by the aid of human skill and labour;
105 (iii)The forest is occasionally parceled out for the purposes of sale and the space from which trees sold are out away is guarded by forest guards to protect offshoots;
(iv)It has been satisfactorily proved that considerable amount of human labour and care is being applied year after year for keeping the forest alive as also for reviving the portions that get denuded as a result of destruction by cattle and other causes;
(v)The staff is employed by the assessee to perform the following specific operations:
(a) Pruning, (b) Weeding, (c) Felling, (d) Clearing, (e) Cutting of channels to help the flow of rain water, (f) Guarding the trees against pests and other destructive elements, (g) Sowing of seeds after digging of the soil in denuded areas." The Tribunal found that the employment of human labour and skill in items (a) to (f) was necessary for the maintenance and upkeep of any forest of spontaneous growth. Regarding item (g), however, it found that the said operation had been performed only occasionally and over a small fraction of the area where the original growth had been found to have been completely denuded. Such occasions were however few and far between, the normal process being that whenever a tree was cut, a stump of about 6" height was left intact which sent forth off-shoots all round bringing about fresh growth in course of time. This went on perpetually unless an area got otherwise completely denuded.
The reference was heard by the High Court and the High Court held that actual cultivation of the land was not required and as human labour and skill were spent for the growth of the forest the income from the forest was agricultural income. It accordingly answered the above question in the affirmative. The 14 106 Revenue obtained the requisite certificate of fitness for appeal to this Court and hence this appeal.
The question that arises for consideration in this appeal is whether income derived from the sale of Sal and Piyasal trees in the forest owned by the assessee which was originally a forest of spontaneous growth "not grown by the aid of human skill and labour" but on which forestry operations described in the statement of case had been carried on by the assessee involving considerable amount of expenditure of human skill and labour is agricultural income within the meaning Of s. 2(1) and as such exempt from payment of tax under s. 4(3)(viii) of the Indian Income-tax Act.
Section 2(1) of the Act defines agricultural income and states (so far as it is relevant for the purposes of this appeal):
(1) "agricultural income" means (a) any rent or revenue derived from land which is used for agricultural purposes, and is either assessed to land revenue in the taxable territories or subject to a local rate assessed and collected by officers of the Government as such :
(b) any income derived from such land by:
(i) agriculture, or (ii) the performance by a cultivator or receiver of rent-in kind of any process ordinarily employed by a cultivator or receiver of rent-in-kind to render the produce raised or received by him fit to be taken to market, or (iii) the sale by a cultivator or receiver of rent in kind of the produce raised or received by him, in respect of which no process has been performed other than a process of the nature described in sub clause (ii) ..............................................................
Section 4(3) of the Act provides:" (3) Any income, profits or gains falling within the following classes shall not be included in the total income of the person receiving them;
...........................................................
(viii) Agricultural income..................
107 Even though "agricultural income" which is exempted under s. 4 (3) (viii) of the Act is defined in s. 2(1) as above, there is no definition of "agriculture" or "agricultural purpose" to be found in the Act and it therefore falls to be determined what is the connotation of these terms.
An argument based on entries 14 and 19 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution may be disposed of at once. It was urged that entry No. 14 referred to agriculture including agricultural education and research protection against pests and prevention of plant diseases while entry No. 19 referred to forests and there was therefore a clear line of demarcation between agriculture and forests with the result that forestry could not be comprised within agriculture. If forestry was thus not comprised within agriculture, any income from forestry could not be agricultural income and the income derived by the assessee from the sale of the forest trees could not be agricultural income at all, as it was not derived from land by agriculture within the meaning of the definition of agricultural income given in the Indian Income-tax Act.
This argument, however, does not take account of the fact that the entries in the lists of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution are heads of legislation which are to be interpreted in a liberal manner comprising within their scope all matters incidental thereto. They are not mutually exclusive. If the assessee plants on a vacant site trees with a view that they should grow into a forest, as for example, Casuarina plantations and expends labour and skill for that purpose, the income from such trees would clearly be agricultural produce. It has to be remembered that even though this demarcation between agriculture and forestry was available in the Lists contained in the Seventh Schedule to the Government of India Act, 1935, no such demarcation existed in the Devolution Rules made under the Government of India Act, 1919, and in any event the definition of agricultural income with which we are concerned was incorporated in the Indian Income-tax Acts as early as 1886, if not earlier: vide s. 5 of the Indian Income-tax 108 Act, 1886 (II of 1886). It has also to be remembered that inspite of this demarcation between agriculture and forests in the Constitution, taxes on agricultural income are a separate head under entry 46 of List II of the Seventh Schedule and would comprise within their scope even income from forestry operations provided it falls within the definition of agricultural income which according to the definition given under Art. 366(1) means agricultural income as defined for the purposes of the enactments relating to Indian Income-tax.
The terms " agriculture " and " agricultural purpose" not having been defined in the Indian Income-tax Act, we must necessarily fall back upon the general sense in which they have been understood in common parlance. "Agriculture" in its root sense means ager, a field and culture, cultivation, cultivation of field which -'of course implies expenditure of human skill and labour upon land. The term has, however, acquired a wider significance and that is to be found in the various dictionary meanings ascribed to it. It may be permissible to look the dictionary meaning of the term in the absence of any definition thereof in the relevant statutes. As was observed by Lord Coleridge, in R. v. Peters (1):
I am quite aware that dictionaries are not to be taken as authoritative exponents of the meanings of words used in Acts of Parliament, but it is a well known rule of courts of law that words should be taken to be used in their ordinary sense, and we are therefore sent for instruction to these books." Cozens-Hardy, M. R., also said in Camden (Marquis) v. I.R.C. (2):
"It is for the Court to interpret the statute as best it may. In so doing the Courts may no doubt assist themselves in the discharge of their duty by any literary help they can find, including of course the consultation of standard authors and reference to well known and authoritative dictionaries. " (1) (1886) 16 Q.B.D. 636, 641.
(2) [1914] 1 K. B. 64 1, 647.
109 Turning therefore to the dictionary meaning of agriculture " we find Webster's New International Dictionary describing it as " the art or science of cultivating the ground, including rearing and management of livestock, husbandry, farming, etc. and also including in its broad sense farming, horticulture, forestry, butter and ' cheese-making etc." Murray's' Oxford Dictionary describes it as " the science and art of cultivating the soil; including the allied pursuits of gathering in the crop and rearing live-stock;
tillage, husbandry, farming (in the widest sense)". In Bouvier's Law Dictionary quoting the Standard Dictionary" agriculture " is defined as " the cultivation of soil for food products or any other useful or valuable growths of the field of garden; tillage, husbandry; also, by extension, farming, including any industry practised by cultivator of the soil in connection with such cultivation, as breeding and rearing of stock, dairying, etc. The science that treats of the cultivation of the soil. " In Corpus Juris the term " agriculture " has been understood to mean: " art or science of cultivating the ground, especially in fields or large quantities, including the preparation of the soil, the planting of seeds, the raising and harvesting of crops, and the rearing, feeding and management of livestock; tillage, husbandry and farming.
In its general sense the word also includes gardening or horticulture. " Bhashyam Ayyangar J. in Murugesa Chetti v. Chinnathambi Goundan(1) gave the following dictionary meanings of agriculture as culled out from the Century Dictionary and Anderson's Dictionary of Law:
" The primary meaning of agriculture is the cultivation of the ground (The Century Dictionary) and in its general sense it is the cultivation of the ground for the purpose of procuring vegetables and fruits for the use of man and beast including gardening or horticulture and the raising or feeding of cattle and other stock (Anderson's Dictionary of Law). Its less general and more ordinary signification is the cultivation -with the plough and in large areas in order to raise (1) (1901) I.L.R. 24 Mad. 421,423.
110 food for man and beast (The Century Dictionary) or, in other words, "that species of cultivation which is intended to raise grain and other field crops for man and beast." (Anderson's Dictionary of Law). Horticulture, which denotes the cultivation of garden or orchards, is a species of agriculture in its primary and more general sense." Ramesam J. in Panadai Pathan v. Ramasami Chetti (1) referred to the following connotation of 'agriculture':
"Wharton's Law Lexicon adopts the definition of ,,agriculture" in 8 Edw. VII, c. 36, as including "horticulture, forestry, and the use of land for any purpose of husbandry etc. In 10 Edw. VII, c. 8 s. 41, it was defined so as to include the use of land as "meadow" or pasture land or orchard or osier or woodland, or for market gardens, nursery grounds or allotments, etc. In 57 and 58 Viet. c. 30 s. 22, the term agricultural property' was defined so as to include agricultural land, pasture and woodland, etc." These are the various meanings ascribed to the term " agriculture" in various dictionaries and it is significant to note that the term has been used both in the narrow sense of the cultivation of the field and the wider sense of comprising all activities in relation to the land including horticulture, forestry, breeding and rearing of livestock, dairying, butter and cheese making, husbandry etc.
It was urged on behalf of the assessee that the Court should accept the wider significance of the term and include forestry operations also within its connotation even though they did not involve tilling of the land, sowing of seeds, planting, or similar work on the land. The argument was that tilling of the land, sowing of the seeds planting or similar work on the land were no doubt agricultural operations and if they were part of the forestry operations carried on by the assessee the subsequent operations would certainly be a, continuation of the same and would therefore acquire the characteristic of agricultural operations. But the (1) (1922) I.L.R. 45 Mad. 710.
absence of these basic operations would not necessarily make any difference to the character of the subsequent operations and would not divest them of their character of agricultural operations, so that if in a particular case one found that the forest was of spontaneous growth, even so if forestry operations were carried on in such forests for the purpose of furthering the growth of forest trees, these operations would also enjoy the character of agricultural operations.
If breeding and rearing of live-stock, dairying butter and cheese-making etc., could be comprised within the term "agriculture", it was asked, why should these also be not classed as agricultural operations.
Considerable stress was laid on the fact that s. 4(3)(viii) of the Act enacted a provision in regard to the exemption of "agricultural income" from assessment and it was contended that exemptions should be liberally construed. Reliance was placed on the observations of Vishwanatha Sastri J. in Commissioner of Income-tax, Madras v. K. E. Sundara Mudaliar (1):
" Exemption from tax granted by a Statute should be given full scope and amplitude and should not be whittled down by importing limitations not inserted by the Legislature." Mookerjee J. in Commissioner of Agricultural Income-tax, West Bengal v. Raja Jagadish Chandra Deo Dhabal Deb (2) also expressed himself similarly:
" and the present day view seems to be that where an exemption is conferred by statute, that clause has to be interpreted liberally and in favour of the assessee but must always be without any violence to the language used. The rule must be construed together with the exempting provisions, which must be regarded as paramount." He also quoted a passage from The Upper India Chamber of Commerce v. Commissioner of Income-tax, C.P. & U.P. (3) :
(1) [1950] 18 I.T.R. 259, 271. (3) [1947] 15 I.T.R. 263;
A.I.R.1948 All.70 (2) [1949] 17 I.T.R. 426, 438.
112 " It is needless to observe that, as in the present case, we are concerned with the interpretation of an exemption clause in a taxing statute, that clause must be, as far as possible, liberally construed and in favour of the assessee, provided no violence is done to the language used." It was also pointed out that " Taxes on agricultural income " formed a head of legislation specified in item 46 of List.II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution and should be liberally construed, with the result that agriculture should be understood in the wider significance of the term and all agricultural income derived from agriculture or so understood should be included within the category. There was authority for the proposition that the expression " agricultural land " mentioned in Entry 21 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Government of India Act, 1935, should be interpreted in its wider significance as including lands which are used or are capable of being used for raising any valuable plants or trees or for any other purpose of husbandry. (see Sarojinidevi v. Shri Krishna Anjanneya Subrahmanyam (1) and Megh Raj v. Allah Rakhia (2).
While recognizing the force of the above expressions of opinion we cannot press them into service in favour of the assessee for the simple reason that "agricultural income " has been defined in the Constitution itself in Art. 366(1) to mean agricultural income as defined for the purposes of enactments relating to Indian income tax and there is a definition of " agricultural income " to be found in s. 2(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act. We have therefore got to look to the terms of the definition itself and construe the same regardless of any other consideration, though, in so far as the terms " agriculture " and " agricultural purposes " are concerned, we feel free in view of the same not having been defined in the Act itself, to consider the various meanings which have been ascribed to the same in the legal and other dictionaries.
(1) I.L.R. [1945] Mad. 61. (2) [1942] F.C.R. 53, 62.
113 We may also note here the dictionary meanings of the terms "Forestry" and "Cultivation." The Shorter Oxford Dictionary, Vol.1, page 735, gives the meaning of "forestry" as the "science and art of forming and cultivating forests, management of growing timber." Webster's New International Dictionary, Vol. 1, page 990, gives the following meaning of forestry:
" Science and art of farming, caring for, or cultivating forests; the management of growing timber." Webster's New International Dictionary. Vol. 1, page 643, while talking of cultivation says that "to cultivate" means "(i) to prepare, or to prepare and use, for the raising of crops; to till; as, to cultivate the soil; to loosen or break up the soil about (growing crop or plants) for the purpose of killing weeds, etc., especially with a cultivator, as to cultivate the corn;
(2)to raise, or foster the growth of, by tillage or by labour and care; to produce by culture; as to cultivate roses; to cultivate oysters." Whether the narrower or the wider sense of the term agriculture" should be adopted in a particular case depends not only upon the provisions of the various statutes in which the same occurs but also upon the facts and circumstances of each case. The definition of the term in one statute does not afford a guide to the construction of the same term in another statute and the sense in which the term has been understood in the several statutes does not necessarily throw any light on the manner in which the term should be understood generally. The decided cases disclose a variety of opinions in regard to the connotation of the terms "agriculture" and "agricultural purposes." At one time "agriculture" was understood in its primary sense of cultivation of field and that too for production of food crops for human beings and beasts. This limited interpretation could not be adhered to even though tilling of the land, sowing of the seeds, planting or similar work on the land were the basic operations, the scope of the crops produced was enlarged and all crops raised on the land, whether they be food crops or not were included in the produce raised by agriculture. There was however another school of thought 15 114 which extended the term "agriculture" and included within its connotation not only the products raised by the cultivation of the land but also allied activities which had relation to the land and operations which had the effect of fostering the growth, preservation and maintenance as also the regeneration of the products of the land, thus bringing within its compass not only the basic agricultural operations but also the further operations performed on the products of the land even though they were not necessarily accompanied by these preliminary basic operations. As against these cases which dealt with these preliminary basic operations and also the further operations either by themselves or in conjunction with the former which of course necessarily involved the expenditure of human skill and labour in carrying out those operations, there were instances of products of land which grew wild or were of spontaneous growth without the expenditure of human skill and labour and which it was agreed on all hands could not be comprised within "agriculture" and the income from which could not fall within the definition of "agricultural income". We shall briefly discuss the various cases dealing with these different aspects and try to evolve some principle there from which would serve as a guide in the determination of the question before us.
Kunhaven Haji v. Mavan (1) was the earliest case in which it was held that a lease of a coffee garden was not an I agricultural lease within the meaning of Transfer of Property Act, s. 117. The case however concerned itself with the situation where as far as the Court could gather from the Karar the lease was of the coffee plants only.
There was no further discussion of the legal position and it may be noted that Shephard, J., who was a party to this decision stated in the later case of Murugesa Chetti v. Chinnathambi Gounden (2) that he was wrong in the opinion he expressed -with regard to a coffee garden in this case.
Murugesa Chetti v. Chinnathambi Goundan (2) also was concerned with s. 117 of the Transfer of Property Act . The lease there was a lease of land for (1) (1893) I.L.R. 17 Mad. 98.
(2) (1901) I.L. R. 24 Mad. 421,423.
115 the cultivation of betel and the Court held that such a lease was an agricultural lease falling under s. 117.
Bhashyam Ayyangar, J., who delivered the main judgment of the Court discussed the dictionary meanings of the term " agriculture " and stated that in s. 117 of the Transfer of Property Act it was used in its more general sense as comprehending the raising of vegetables, fruits and other garden products as food for men or beast, though some of them may be regarded in England as products of horticulture as distinguished from agriculture. The learned Judge considered the distinction between " agriculture " and " horticulture " and observed :
" The distinction between agriculture when it is used otherwise than in its primary and more general sense and horticulture is a fine one even in England and in India, especially, it will be impossible in the case of several products of the land to draw a line between agriculture and horticulture according to English notions. The only practical distinction which I can suggest and one which will give effect to the policy of the Legislature in exempting agricultural leases from the operations of section 107, etc., of the Transfer of Property Act is to regard as agriculture, as distinguished from horticulture, not only all field cultivation by tillage but also all garden cultivation for the purpose chiefly of procuring vegetables or fruits as food for man or beast and other products fit for human consumption by way of luxury, if not as an article of diet." He then discussed the policy of exemptions setting out the observations of Cave J. in Ellis & Co. v. Hilse(l):
" The very object of this exemption is the wellknown one of favouring agriculture-an old object of English Legislation in favour of a very important industry ", and stated:
" This observation of Mr. Justice Cave will apply with much greater force in this country where the agricultural industry is more, important than in England and is one that is common to wet cultivation (1) (1889) L.R. 23 Q.B.D. 24.
116 as to garden and dry cultivation, the object of all such cultivation being chiefly to procure food for men and cattle and other products of the soil which are usually consumed by the people as gentle stimulants or by way of luxury. Betel leaf is an article of daily consumption with all classes in this country as tobacco leaf is with most classes and betel vine is generally grown side by side with plantations, the products of which are among the chief articles of vegetable food." The lease in that case being one for the cultivation of betel was therefore held to be agricultural lease and Shephard, J., agreed with this conclusion revising the opinion which he had expressed earlier in Kunhavan Haji v. Mavan (supra).
In Raja of Venkatagiri v. Ayyappa Reddy (1) the question was whether land usually fit only for pasturing cattle and not for cultivation, i.e., ploughing and raising agricultural crops, was "ryoti" land, though it might have been "old waste" and a tenant of such land was a "ryot" and any amount agreed to be paid for pasturing cattle was " rent " within the definitions of s. 3 of the Madras Estates Land Act (Mad.
I of 1908). The Court held that such land was not " ryoti " land inasmuch as it was not fit for ploughing and raising agricultural crops. The ordinary meaning of " agriculture " was taken to be " the raising of annual or periodical grain crops through the operations of ploughing, sowing, etc." (Per Sadasiva Ayyar, J., at page 741).
The Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Madras v. Zamindar of Singampatti (2) was a reference arising out of the assessment for income tax under Act VII of 1918 of the income derived by the Zamindar of Singampatti from forests and fisheries within the ambit of his Zamindari. The assessee objected to the assessment (i) on the ground that the income was agricultural income within the meaning of s.
4 of the Act and, therefore, not chargeable to income-tax;
(ii) that the (1) (1913) I.L.R..38 Mad. 738.
(2) (1922) I.L. R. 45 Mad, 5 18 (F.B.) 117 assessment was illegal as contravening the terms of his permanent sanad for the Zamindari and the provisions of Regulation XXV of 1802. The Court held' that where the peishkush of a permanently settled estate was fixed in commutation not only of the rentals of the cultivated lands but also of all income which might be derived from forests or fisheries, both under the terms of the sanad and s. I of Regulation XXV of 1802, these incomes were exempt from further taxation by the Government, and s. 3 of the Incometax Act did not abrogate this exemption. In view of this conclusion the Court did not think it necessary to determine whether income from forests or fisheries came under the definition of " agricultural income." The Court, however, pointed out that " a reference to Murray's and Webster's dictionaries shows that the word "agriculture ", while sometimes used in the narrow sense of the art or science of cultivating the ground, is also used in a much wider sense so as to include even " forestry ", according to Webster.
In which sense it was used by the framers of the Income-tax Act would be a matter for determination and to this end it would not be out of place to consider the probable reason for the exemption of agricultural income from income-tax.
No other reason is suggested than the equity of exempting from further burden income which had already paid toll to the State in the shape of land revenue." The question, therefore, whether the income from forests would be " agricultural income " within the meaning of s. 4 of the Income-tax Act' was thus left open and the decision that income from forests was not liable to income-tax was reached under the terms of the Sanad of s. I of Regulation No. 25 of 1802.
Kaju Mal v. Salig Ram(1) was concerned inter alia with a field in which tea was grown and the question was whether the land fell within the definition of Cc agricultural income " or " village immoveable property " as given in s. 3(i) and (ii) of the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1905. The Court held that fields planted with tea bushes were fields used for agricultural (1) (1919) P.R. NO. 19, P. 237.
118 purposes and this decision was affirmed by the Privy council in Kaju Mall v. Salig Ram(1). It was held that the words " agricultural purposes " in s. 2 (iii) of the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, 1900, included the cultivation of tea; consequently, land which was not occupied as the site of any building in a town or Village, and was occupied or let for the cultivation of tea was " agricultural land" within the meaning of s. 3(i) of the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1905.
Emperor v. Probhat Chandra Barua (2) was a case under the Indian Income-tax Act and the classes of income derived from permanently settled estates were "1. Income from fisheries.
2. Income from land used for stacking timber. 3. Income from pasturage." The income from the first two heads was certainly not agricultural income or income derived from "land which is used for agricultural purposes" within the meaning of ss. 2 and 4 of the Act. But income derived from pasturage was held to be agricultural income which could not lawfully be charged with income-tax. There was a difference of opinion between Rankin, J., and Page, J., in regard to the liability of income from fisheries and income from land used for stacking timber based on the construction of the Permanent Settlement Regulations of 1793. But that is immaterial for our present purposes. What is material is that both the learned Judges were unanimous in their opinion that income from pasturage was income derived from "land which is used for agricultural purposes" and was, therefore, within the exemption given by a. 4(3)(viii) to agricultural income as defined by s. 2(1)(a) of the Act.
In Kesho Prasad Singh v. Sheo Pragash Ojha (3) the Privy Council held that a grove was not land " held for agricultural purposes " within the meaning of s. 70 of the Agra Tenancy Act, 1901, affirming the decision of the High Court of Allahabad that it was impossible to hold that that section had, any application whatever to such a property -as the grove in fact was.
(1)(1923) I.L.R. 5 Lah. 50.
(2)(1924) I.L.R. 51 Cal. 504.
(3) (1924) I.L.R. 46 All. 831.
119 The Commissioner of Income-tax, Madras v. T. Manavedan Tirumalpad (1) was also a decision under the Indian Incometax Act (XI of 1922) and the assessee there was assessed by the Income Tax Officer for the year 1928-29 on the amount received by the sale of timber trees cut and removed from the forests. The question was whether these amounts were liable as such to income-tax and the Court observed derived from the sale of paddy which is grown on land and the income derived from the sale of timber cut in a forest;
but the profits earned from the sale of paddy would be assessable to income-tax but for the special exemption given to that income in the Incometax Act, by reason of its being agricultural income. There is such exemption in the case of income derived from the sale of timber." There is no further discussion to be found in the judgment which would throw light on the question whether such receipts by the assessee were agricultural income and as such exempt from income-tax.
The later decision of the Madras High Court in Chandrasekhara Bharathi Swamigal v. Duraisami Naidu (2) however contains an elaborate discussion as to the connotation of the term "agriculture ". The case arose under the Madras Estates Land Act (Mad. I of 1908) and the question which the Court had to consider was whether growing Casuarina trees, i.e., trees for fuel, was an agricultural purpose so as to make the person who held the land for that purpose a " ryot " within the meaning of the Madras Estates Land Act. The Court held that land held for growing Casuarina trees was not land held for purposes of agriculture and the person holding the land for that purpose was not a " ryot " within the meaning of the Act. While delivering the judgment of the Court Reilly, J., embarked upon a consideration of what the term " agriculture " meant and came to the conclusion that agriculture could not be defined by the nature of the product cultivated but should be defined rather by (1) (1930) I.L.R. 54 Mad. 21 (S.B.) (2) (1931) I.L.R. 54 Mad. 900.
120 the circumstances in which the cultivation was carried on.
He observed at page 902:
" I agree with the remark of Shephard, J., in Murugesa Chetti v. Chinnathambi Goundan(l) that a man who plants or maintains trees for firewood is not in ordinary parlance an agriculturist. If we take the strict meaning of " agriculture " according to its derivation, it means the cultivation of a field, the cultivation of an open space, as opposed to horticulture, the cultivation of a comparatively small enclosed space. The cultivation either of the field in agriculture or of the garden in horticulture cannot be confined, I think, to any particular product. With great respect, I do not agree with the opinion of Bhashyam Ayyangar, J:, in Murugesa Chetti v. Chinnathambi Goundan(l) that agriculture implies production of things useful as food for men or beast or other products fit for human consumption by way of luxury. That appears to me to be too narrow an interpretation. Still less do I agree with the opinion expressed by Sadasiva Ayyar, J., in Raja of Venkatagiri v.
Ayyappa Reddi that agriculture is confined to the production of grain crops. I can see no reason why the cultivation in open spaces of such useful products as cotton, jute, flax and hemp should not be agriculture. Indeed I think agriculture cannot be defined by the nature of the products cultivated but should be defined rather by the circumstances in which the cultivation is carried on. In some cases it has been suggested that agriculture is confined to tillage. I think it can easily be shown that agriculture was carried on in this world before ploughs were invented. In the present day in many places cultivation is done with spades and not with ploughs, but the planting of timber or firewood trees, which are to stand on the land for a considerable number of years, forming plantations or woods or forests, appears to me to be opposed to the idea of agriculture, the cultivation of an open space. It is true that for the purpose of growing trees in a plantation it may be necessary first to prepare the land.
(1) (1901) I.L.R. 24 Mad. 42I, 423.
(2) (1913) I.L.R..38 Mad. 738.
121 Later on it may be necessary to protect and water the young plants. Still later it may be necessary to thin out the plantation. But, when the land is covered with trees which had to stand on it for a number of years, sometimes as long as a century, during most of which period the land itself is untouched, to describe that as agriculture appears to me inappropriate. To my mind it is something very different from the cultivation of a field or of an open space. It may be noticed that in Kesho Prasad Singh v. Sheo Pragash Ojha (1) their Lordships of the Privy Council approved of the opinion expressed by two learned judges of the Allahabad High Court that land let for a grove was not let for an agricultural purpose. It happened that the case then under consideration was one arising under the Agra Tenancy Act.
But in that Act there is no definition of 'agriculture'.
Therefore both the learned judges of the Allahabad High Court and their Lordships of the Privy Council were, we may take it, considering what is the meaning of the word I agriculture' in its general sense. I may mention also that in Commissioner of Income Tax v. Manavedan Tirumalpad (2) a Full Bench of this Court remarked that income from cutting timber was not agricultural income." It may be noticed that the learned Judge enlarged the connotation of the term "agriculture " by having regard to the circumstances in which the cultivation was carried on rather than the nature of the products cultivated and embraced within the scope of the term not merely the production of things useful as food for man or beast or other products fit for human consumption by way of luxury but also such useful products as cotton, jute, flax and hemp, though he stopped short at those products and hesitated to include therein growing of trees in plantation where the land was covered with trees which have to stand on it for a number of years.
The last case to be referred in this series is that of Deen Mohammad Mian v. Hulas Narain Singh(2) (1)(1924) I.L.R. 46 All. 831.
(2) (1942) 23 Pat. L.T. 143, 152.
16 122 where it was held that an orchard is an agricultural land.
It was observed:
it The case of an orchard is quite different. Orchard trees ordinarily are, and can be presumed to have been, planted by men after preparation of the ground which is cultivation and seasonal crops are gathered. Fruit trees also require seasonal attention such as pruning and digging of the soil around the roots and it cannot be said that this ceases to be cultivation merely because the whole tree is not replanted every year.................. In my opinion the land in suit is agricultural land; it is land from which by preparing the soil and planting and cultivating trees the raiyat expects to enjoy periodical returns in the way of produce for food." This was a further extension of the idea which had 'germinated in the opinion expressed by Reilly, J., in Chandrasekhara Bharathi Swamigal v. C. P. Duraisami Naidu(1) and even plantation of trees in orchards which did not require to be replanted every year was included in the connotation of the term "agriculture".
A still further extension of the term is to be found in the following observations of Vishwanatha Sastri, J., in The Commissioner of Income-tax, Madras v. K. E. Sundara Mudaliar (2) at p. 273:
" It is a matter of ordinary experience, at least in this part of the country, that mango, cocoanut, palmyra, orange, jack, arecanut, tamarind and other trees are planted usually in an -enclosed land, and that these trees do not yield any fruit or crop in the early years of their growth. They remain on the land for a long number of years yielding fruit only after their maturity.There is no reason why the planting, rearing, watering, fencing and protection of such trees and the gathering of their fruits during the annual seasons should not be held to be "agriculture". There is some kind of cultivation or prodding of the soil at the inception when the planting is done and subsequently also at intervals. In the. case of coffee grown on hill slopes, there is no ploughing or tillage as in the (1) (1931) I.L.R. 54 Mad. 900.
(2) [1950] 18 I.T.R. 259, 271.
123 case of wet and dry -fields; but it cannot be maintained that growing coffee is not an agricultural operation.
Coffee and tea plants stand on the soil for many years, and their produce is gathered periodically. In the padugai lands or lands lying between the sandy bed and flood bank of rivers, plantains are grown in many places in deltaic tracts. Young plants are often brought and planted in pits dug for the purpose in a row with sufficient interspaces.
Trenches are dug by the side of a row of plantain trees in order to catch and detain water. The plantain trees last for about two years, and from each tree off-shoots spring up and grow in place of the parent tree. There is thus a natural replenishment of the plantain garden. It cannot be said that the raising of plantains is not an agricultural purpose. Similarly in the case of sugarcane the plants stand on the land for two years or a little more, and there are usually two cuttings. Castor plants stand for some years on the soil and the seeds are periodically gathered in. Bamboo is often planted in enclosed lands by digging pits, filling them with sand and manure and then planting the young stalks in a bunch at suitable distances. Watering is done for the first 2 or 3 years. Every year, the land surrounding each bamboo cluster is dug with a spade and small earthen ridges are put up so as to catch and retain rain water. Bamboo plants attain maturity in about 3 or 4 years, and the thorny branches which grow on the main stem are then fit to be cut off and used for fencing purposes.............................. I am unable to see why these operations are not agricultural operations." The cases above noted all of them interpret the term "agriculture" in its narrower sense, though there is a marked progress from the extremely narrow construction put upon it by Bhashyam Ayyangar J. in Murugesa Chetti v. Chinnathambi Goundan(1) to the somewhat wider connotation thereof adopted by Reilly J. in Chandrasekhara Bharathi Swamigal v. C.P. Duraisami Naidu (2) and by Vishwanatha, Sastri J. in The Commissioner of Income-tax, Madras v. K. E. Sundara (1) (1901) I.L.R. 24 Mad. 421, 423.
(2) (1931) I.L.R. 54 Mad. 900.
124 Mudaliar(1) It is interesting to note that all throughout these cases runs the central idea of either tillage of the land or sowing of seeds or planting or similar work on the land which invests the operation with the characteristic of agricultural operations and whenever that central idea is fulfilled there is the user of land for agricultural purposes and the income derived therefrom becomes agricultural income.
There were, on the other hand, decisions which interpreted the term "agriculture" in the wider sense as including all activities in relation to the land, even though they did not comprise these basic agricultural operations. King Emperor v. Alexander Allen(2) involved the interpretation of the expression "land used solely for agricultural purposes" in sub-s. (3) of s. 63 of the Madras District Municipalities Act (Mad. IV of 1884) as amended by the Madras District Municipalities Amendment Act (Mad. III of 1897) and the Court held that the lands on which potatoes, grain, vegetables, etc., were grown, as well as pasture land, were used solely for agricultural purposes " within the meaning of the sub-section. The Court adopted the definition of agricultural land given in the Agricultural Rates Act (59 and 60 Vict., Chap. 16) s. 9:
" The expression " agricultural land " means any land used as arable, meadow, or pasture ground only, cottage gardens exceeding one-quarter of an acre, market gardens, nursery grounds, orchards, or allotments, but does not include land occupied together with a house as a park, gardens other than as aforesaid, pleasure grounds or any land kept or preserved mainly or exclusively for purposes of sport or recreation or land used as a race course." and also the meaning ascribed to it in Murray's Oxford English Dictionary quoted above and observed:
" We also note that it is there pointed out that the restriction of the word agriculture to tillage, as in the following quotation, is rare. The lands were not fields for agriculture but pastures for cattle. We believe that we cannot do better than follow these definitions in (1) [1950] 18 I.T.R. 259, 271. (2) (1901) I.L.R. 25 Mad.
627, 629,630.
125 attempting to decide what, for the purposes of subsection (3) of section 63 of the Municipalities Act, are or are not lands used solely for agricultural purposes ..... We do not consider that any distinction can be drawn between large and small plots of lands on which roots of grain are cultivated. All such land must be held to be land used solely for agricultural purposes Counsel has urged before us that these so-called waste lands are pasture lands and as such should be held to be lands used solely for agricultural purposes If, therefore, it could be shown that these so-called waste lands were in reality pasture grounds or lands used for "rearing livestock", we should certainly decide that they were lands used solely for agricultural purposes." The learned Judges there were influenced by the dictionary meaning of the term agriculture as given in Murray's New Oxford Dictionary and understood the term agriculture in the widen sense as including the user of-land for rearing livestock also.
In Panadai Pathan v. Ramaswami Chetti(1) a lease of land was given for growing casuarina trees and the question was whether such a lease was a lease for agricultural purposes within the meaning of s. 117 of the Transfer of Property Act . The Court held that it was a lease for agricultural purposes and therefore did not require a registered instrument for its creation. Spence J. in the course of his judgment differed from the opinion of Bhashyam Ayyangar, J., in Murugesa Chetti v. Chinnathambi Goundan (2) that the word agriculture in its more general sense comprehends the raising of vegetables, fruits and other garden products as food for man or beast, if the learned Judge intended thereby to limit it to the raising of food products. For to so restrict the word would be to exclude flower, indigo, cotton, jute, flax, tobacco and other such cultivation. He also differed from the opinion expressed by Sadasiva Ayyar J. in Seshayya v. Rajah of (1) (1922) I.L.R. 45 Mad. 710.
(2) (1901) I.L.R. 24 Mad. 42I, 423.
126 Pittapur (1) and Rajah of Venkatagiri v. Ayyappa Reddi (2) that agriculture meant the raising of annual or periodical grain crops through the operation of ploughing, sowing, etc., as such definition would exclude sugar cane, indigo, tea, flower, tobacco, and betel cultivation from agriculture. He then referred to the dictionary meaning of the term "agriculture" as given in the Oxford Dictionary and the Bouvier's Law Dictionary set out above and observed:
" In my opinion agriculture connotes the raising of useful or valuable products which derive nutriment from the soil with the aid of human skill and labour; and thus it will include horticulture, arboriculture and silviculture, in all cases where growth of trees is effected by the expenditure of human care and attention in such operations as those of ploughing, sowing, planting, pruning, manuring, watering, protecting etc. " Ramesam, J., who delivered a concurring judgment referred to the definition of agriculture adopted in Wharton's Law Lexicon and was of opinion that it would include the use of land as " meadow or pasture or orchard or osier or woodland, or for market gardens, nursery grounds or allotments etc." but would exclude all cultivation of fibrous plants such as cotton, jute and linen and all plants used for dyeing purposes, such as indigo etc., and all timber trees and flowering plants etc. According to him, the rearing of a Casuarina plantation requires some preparation of the ground and subsequent care by watering the plants and he was therefore of Opinion that rearing of Casuarina trees was an agricultural purpose within the meaning of s. 117 of the Transfer of Property Act .
It may be observed however that according to both the learned Judges some preparation of the ground or some expenditure of human care and attention in such operations as those of ploughing, sowing, planting etc., was considered essential for constituting these operations agricultural operations.
In Commissioner of Income-tax, Burma v. Kokine Dairy, Rangoon(3) the question was whether income (1) (1916) 31 M.L.J. 284; 1916 M.W.N. 396. (3) [1938] 6 I.T.R. 502, 509.
(2) (1913) I.L.R. 38 Mad. 738.
127 from a dairy farm and the milk derived from the farm is agricultural income and exempt as such from incometax.
Roberts C.J. who delivered the opinion' of the Court observed:
"Where cattle are wholly stall-fed and not pastured upon the land at all, doubtless it is trade and no agricultural operation is being carried on; where cattle are being exclusively or mainly pastured and are none the less fed with small amounts of oil-cake or the like, it may well be that the income derived from the sale of their milk is agricultural income. But between the two extremes there must be a number of varying degrees, and the task of the Income-tax Officer is to apply his mind to the two distinctions and to decide in any particular case on which side of the fence, if I may use the term, the matter falls." He then referred to the case of Lean and Dickinson v. Ball (1) where Lord Cullen had said that he proceeded on the footing that the case, which was one dealing with poultryfarming, was one in which poultry derived sustenance to a material extent from the produce of the ground.
This method of approach was on a par with the one adopted by Lord Wright in Lord Glanely v. Wightman(2) where it was observed:
" If authority were needed, the provisions just quoted do at least show that profits of occupation' include gains from the animal produce as well as the agricultural, horticultural, or arboricultural produce of the soil;...................... equally it is obvious that the rearing of animals, regarded as they must be as products of the soil-since it is from the soil that they draw their sustenance and on the soil that they liveis a source of profit from the occupation of land, whether these animals are for consumption as food (such as bullocks, pigs or chickens), or for the provision of food (such as cows, goats or fowls), or for recreation (such as hunters or race horses), or for use (such as draught or -plough horses).
All these animals are appurtenant to the soil, in the relevant sense for this purpose, as much as trees, wheat crops, flowers or roots though no doubt they differ in obvious respects. Nor (1) (1925) 10 Tax Cas. 341.
128 is it now material towards determining what are products of occupation that farming has developed in its use of mechanical appliances and power, not only in such matters as ploughing, reaping, threshing, and so forth, but in such' ancient methods of preparing its products as making cream, butter or cheese. The farmer is still dealing with the products of the soil, and Schedule B covers the income." The House of Lords were dealing with the profits of occupation of land not with income derived from user of land for agricultural purposes and therefore not restricted in their interpretation of the term " occupation " and all these activities which were described therein might as well have been comprised within the scope of the taxing statutes.
What we have, however, to see is whether these activities fall within the connotation of the terms " agriculture " and " agricultural purpose " which are the only terms to be considered for bringing the income derived therefrom within the definition of agricultural income in s. 2 (1) (a) of the Indian Income-tax Act.
In Moolji Sicka & Co., In re(1) Derbyshire C.J. understood the term ,agriculture" in a wider sense as including operations not only on the land itself but on the shrubs which grew on the soil and were according to him a part of the soil. The assessees were manufacturers of biri, a kind of cigarette consisting of tobacco wrapped in tendu leaves.
The tendu plant was of entirely wild growth and propagated itself without human agency in jungle and waste lands. The assessees had taken several villages on " lease " for plucking the leaves of such plants and the work done by the assessees consisted in pruning the trees and burning the dead branches and dried leaves lying on the ground. The Court held that the profits accruing to the assessees by the sale of tendu leaves was not exempt as agricultural income but to the extent to which pruning of the tendu shrub occurred, there was in a technical and legal sense a cultivation of the soil (1) [1939] 7 I.T.R. 493.
129 in which the shrub grew and therefore so much of the income as was shown by the. assessee to be profit derived from the collection and preparation, so as to make them fit to be taken to the market, of tendu leaves produced by the pruning of the tendu shrubs was exempt as agricultural income under s. 2 (1) and s. 4 (3) (viii) of the Indian Income-tax Act.
The learned Chief Justice observed:
" Cutting back or pruning the wild tendu clearly contributes to the growth of the leaves in that shrub and I am prepared to hold that the pruning of the shrub is a cultivation of the shrub and as the shrub grows in the soil and as a part of it, is a cultivation of the soil in a legal and technical sense." The word cultivation was here understood by the learned Chief Justice not only in the sense of cultivation of the soil but in the sense of cultivation of the tendu shrubs which grew on the soil and were therefore a part of it. The operations which were performed on the shrubs were certainly not operations performed on the soil itself and the opinion expressed by the learned Chief Justice has certainly given an extended meaning to the term cultivation and used with reference to the soil. It is significant however to observe that cultivation of the soil was considered an essential ingredient which rendered the income derived from the tendu leaves agricultural income within the meaning of its definition in s. 2(1)(a) of the Act.
Commissioner of Income-Tax, Madras v. K. E. Sundara Mudaliar (1) contains a further extension of this idea where Vishwanatha Sastri J. observed at p. 274:
" Pasture land used for the feeding and rearing of livestock is land used for agricultural purposes: Emperor v. Alexander Allen (2) . Rearing of livestock such as cows, buffaloes, sheep and poultry is included in "husbandry". These animals are considered to be the products of the soil, just like crops, roots, flowers and trees, for they live on the land and derive their sustenance from the soil and its produce:
Glanely v. Wightman(3) ; Commissioner of Income-tax, Burma v.
(1) [1950] 18 I.T.R. 259, 27I. (3) [1933] 1 A.C. 618 (H.L.) 638.
(2) [1901] I.L.R. 25 Mad. 627, 629, 630.
17 130 Kokine Dairy Co. (1) It is therefore not legitimate, in my opinion, to confine the word "agriculture" to the c
