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Issues involved: Determination of whether a transaction resulting in loss is a speculative transaction u/s 43(5) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and whether the loss is from speculative business.
Summary: The judgment of the court, delivered by OBUL REDDI C.J., pertains to two references involving separate assessees but raising identical questions. The first reference, at the instance of the revenue, relates to the assessment year 1968-69 for a partnership firm engaged in the purchase of groundnuts. The firm entered into a contract for the purchase of groundnuts but later decided not to proceed due to a fall in prices, resulting in a payment of Rs. 20,833.33 to the other party. The Income-tax Officer and the Appellate Assistant Commissioner considered the transaction as speculative, while the Tribunal held that the loss was not speculative. The questions referred included whether the transaction constituted a speculative transaction u/s 43(5) and whether the loss was from speculative business. The court first established that the transaction fell under the definition of a speculative transaction u/s 43(5) as it was settled without actual delivery of the commodity as per the contract terms. However, the main issue was whether the transaction amounted to a speculative business. It was noted that for a business to be speculative, there should be more than one speculative transaction forming a business, as per Explanation 2 to section 28. Since there was only one such transaction in these cases and they were isolated instances, the court concurred with the Tribunal's finding that it was a loss in business and not from speculative business. Conclusively, the court answered the first question affirmatively in favor of the revenue, stating that the transaction was speculative. However, the second question was answered negatively against the revenue, indicating that the loss was not from speculative business. The references were thus answered accordingly, with costs and advocate's fees specified.
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