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TMI Blog1955 (2) TMI 14X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... relief by way of earned income under section 15A of the Act as part of his income from forestry, fisheries, royalties, etc., constitutes earned income within the meaning of section 2(6AA) of the Act. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner and the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal negatived his contention in this behalf. On his application, however, the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal was of opinion that a question of law did arise out of the said order, and accordingly they have stated a case on the question quoted above. Section 2(6AA) was introduced into the Income-tax Act by Ordinance No. IX of 1945. For the purposes of the present reference, the relevant portion of the definition of "earned income" as given in section 2(6AA) may be quoted as follows: "'earned income' means any income of an assessee who is an individual, Hindu undivided family, unregistered firm or other association of persons not being a company, a local authority, a registered firm or a firm treated as registered under clause (b) of sub- section (5) of section 23-(c) which is chargeable under the head 'other sources' if it is immediately derived from personal exertion or represents a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... persons in whose hands the income is sought to be assessed. In the present case, the assessee has maintained not only forest staff, but his Dewan is admittedly in the immediate charge of the general superintendence of the estates as a whole." He held that it was quite natural that the assessee would be associated with the general well-being of his estates. The assessee's requisition for particular trees from his forests did not in any way establish his claim that the income from the forests was immediately derived from his personal exertion. He, therefore, disallowed the claim. In the assessment year 1949-50, and 1950-51, the same Income-tax Officer disallowed the earned income reliefs on almost similar grounds. 4. I now pass on to the orders of the Income-tax Appellate Assistant Commissioner. In the appeal relating to the assessment year 1946-47, the Appellate Assistant commissioner held that there was no evidence before him to show that the income from other sources was immediately derived from the assessee's personal exertion. In the appeal relating to the assessment year 1947-48, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner pointed out the difference between clause (b) an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s clause. Counsel for both sides have informed us that there is no decided case on the point. It is an established principle of construction of statutes that in the absence of there being anything contrary to the context, the language of a statute should be interpreted according to the plain dictionary meaning of the terms used therein. "The first and most elementary rule of construction is," says Maxwell, "that it is to be assumed that the words and phrases of technical legislation are used in their technical meaning if they have acquired one, and, otherwise, in their technical ordinary meaning; and, secondly, that the phrases and sentences are to be construed according to the rules of grammar"......"If there is nothing to modify, nothing to alter, nothing to qualify the language which the statue contains, it must be construed in the ordinary and natural meaning of the words and sentences. 'The safer and more correct course of dealing with a question of construction is to take the words themselves and arrive, if possible, at their meaning without, in the first place, reference to cases'." See Maxwell on the Interpretation of Statutes 9th Edn. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e case of income chargeable under the head "other sources", the assessee is entitled to the benefit of earned income if he shows that the taxable income under this head is immediately derived from his personal exertion. In other words, he must show that it is his personal exertion which brings into existence the income which is sought to be charged. The words "exertion" and "immediately" as used in the section should have their ordinary dictionary meaning. In the Oxford English Dictionary the primary meaning of the word "exertion" is stated to be as follows:- (1) Action of putting forth, manifestation, display; (2) The action or habit of exerting or putting into active operation, the action of exercising or putting in force; (3) The action of exerting oneself; vigorous action, effort." In the same dictionary the meaning of the word "immediately" is stated as follows: "Without intermediary; intervening agency of immediate; by direct agency; and in direct or proximate action, or relation so as to concern, interest or affect directly, or intimately; directly." Taking the dictionary meaning of the words into consider ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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