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TMI Blog2000 (11) TMI 2X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e the orders of a Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh (see [1997] 227 ITR 81), dismissing a writ petition filed by the appellant-assessee and answering against him a reference made by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal of the following question : "Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the profit arising from the sale of agricultural lands did not amount to capital gains within the meaning of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ?" The reference related to the assessment years 1981-82 and 1983-84. In the previous years relevant to the assessment years 1981-82 and 1983-84 the assessee sold agricultural lands which were situated within the municipal limits of Bina. He made ca ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... legislate on the subject of taxes on income other than agricultural income. In the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, "agricultural income" was defined in clause (1) of section 2. Sub-clause (a) thereof alone is relevant for our purpose. Thereunder, "agricultural income" meant "any rent or revenue derived from land which is used for agricultural purposes . . ." Section 2(4A) defined "capital asset" to mean "property of any kind held by an assessee" but not "any land from which the income derived is agricultural income". It was submitted by learned counsel for the assessee that "agricultural income" in clause (1) of article 366 must be read only as it was defined in 1950 when the Constitution came into force ; that is to say, in the manner in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ad into the adopting statute. In the case of the latter category, it may be presumed that the legislative intent was to include all the subsequent amendments also made from time to time in the generic law on the subject adopted by general reference. This principle of construction of a reference statute has been neatly summed up by Sutherland, thus : 'A statute which refers to the law of a subject generally adopts the law on the subject as of the time the law is invoked. This will include all the amendments and modifications of the law subsequent to the time the reference statute was enacted'. Corpus Juris Secundum also enunciates the same principle in these terms : 'Where the reference in an adopting statute is to the law generally ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of a municipality (whether known as a 'municipality, municipal corporation, notified area committee, town area committee, town committee, or by any other name) or a cantonment board and which has a population of not less than ten thousand according to the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published before the first day of the previous year ; or (b) in any area within such distance, not being more than eight kilometres. from the local limits of any municipality or cantonment board referred to in item (a), as the Central Government may, having regard to the extent of, and scope for, urbanisation of that area and other relevant considerations, specify in this behalf by notification in the Official Gazette;" It a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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