1947 (2) TMI 20

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..... and sale of mangoes as income which was assessable to income-tax. An objection was raised on behalf of the assessee that the income from the sources mentioned above was agricultural income and the Income-tax Officer was, therefore, not entitled to include the amount in the assessable income of the assessee. The Income-tax Officer had also included interest from the arrears of rent received by the assessee as taxable income. The assessee appealed to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who, however, upheld the decision of the Income-tax Officer. On further appeal to the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, the Tribunal held that the interest payable on arrears of rent was agricultural income and should not, therefore, have been .....

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..... aneous growth, though the land on which they had grown is assessed to land revenue. The second question is:― (2) Whether, in the circumstances of the case, the sum of ₹ 1,069 realised by the assessee on account of interest on arrears of rent of land which is used for agricultural purposes and is assessed to land revenue is 'agricultural income' within the meaning of Section 2(1)(a) of the Income-tax Act, and as such exempt from tax under Section 4(3)(viii) of the said Act? Mr. Gopi Nath Kunzru, learned counsel for the assessee, has urged that the answer to the first question must be in his favour, even though the trees and grass etc., which had yielded the income, were of spontaneous growth, as the land was .....

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..... Province of Bihar v. Maharaja Pratap Udai Nath Sahi Deo [1941] 9 I.T.R. 313, at p. 328 these trees have grown naturally in the jungles without the intervention of human agency, and....the growth of these trees cannot be said to result from the cultivation of the soil. In fact, it was the absence of cultivation that permitted the area to develop into a jungle. If we may say so with respect, we entirely agree with the above decision and we must, therefore, answer this question in the negative. The next question is also covered by a recent decision of this Court in Mst. Sarju Bai v. Commissioner of Income-tax [1947] 15 I.T.R. 137. A Bench of this Court considered the question whether interest on arrears of rent of agricultural land reali .....

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