1970 (3) TMI 49

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..... ash exhibit P-5, a letter dated 13th June, 1968, to the corporation calling upon them to file a return on the basis of the added clause (iia) to section 2(h) of the Act. Though the notice was on this basis, since there was no notification as contemplated by clause (iia), the revenue has taken the stand in their counter-affidavit that the petitioner is an "individual" and is liable to tax as such. Therefore, we need consider only that question--whether the petitioner is an "individual". One or two old decisions of the Bombay High Court, one decision of the Madras High Court and the decision of the Federal Court of Pakistan in Punjab Province v. Federation of Pakistan, which has approved a decision of the Bombay High Court, have been brough .....

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..... t fit to do so by a general or special order. We shall now consider the relevant decisions cited before us. The decisions, barring a Full Bench ruling of this court, are under the Indian Income-tax Act of 1922. In Commissioner of Income-tax v. Smt. Sodra Devi, the Supreme Court has observed that the word "individual" includes a corporation created by a statute, e.g., a University or a Bar Council, or the trustees of a baronetcy trust incorporated by a Baronetcy Act. In the same decision the Supreme Court has pointed out that. the term "individual" should be given a meaning consistent with the context in which it is used. The Supreme Court has observed that, when section 16(3) of the Income-tax Act talks of an "individual", it is only an " .....

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..... The next case brought to our notice will meet this objection as well, that is, the Full Bench decision of our High Court in Mammad Keyi v. Wealth-tax Officer, Calicut, where the majority of the judges (Velu Pillai J.-dissenting) have held that the term " individual " in section 3 of the Wealth-tax Act includes a Mappilla Marumakkathayam tarwad. It may be noted that the majority of the Full Bench have followed the decision of the Supreme Court in Banarsi Dass v. Wealth-tax Officer Special Circle, Meerut 8, which interpreted the word "individual" in entry 86 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, which reads : " Taxes on the capital value of the assets, exclusive of agricultural land, of individuals and companies ; taxes o .....

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