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TMI Blog1925 (9) TMI 4X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat this may be treated as having become in the words of the Act obsolete. It seems to us that this is contrary to the plain meaning of the language used. Obsolete machinery means machinery which though it is able to perform its function has become in common parlance out of date and performs its function so indifferently or at such a cost that a prudent man instead of continuing to use such machinery would discard it and instal more modern and more labour-saving machines. In our opinion, the word obsolete is quite inapplicable to a new car which is only useless for its purposes because it has been broken to pieces in an accident and in our opinion this cannot be allowed as a deduction and we disagree with the learned Judge. 3. A much mor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by reason of wear and tear during the year of any machinery or appliances used for the purpose of the concern and belonging to the person or company by whom the concern is carried on. Upon that it was held in the case of The Caledonian Railway Co. v. Banks (1) decided in the Court of Exchequer in Scotland that the assessee could not deduct the actual expenses of occasional repairs and renewals and then proceed to claim an additional deduction under the general section of the statute for the same thing under the guise of wear and tear. With that decision no one wishes to quarrel, but it is argued for the assessee that the position under the Indian Statute is quite different because the sections relating to deductions and the sub-sections al ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... vision of sub-section (vi). It is obviously arguable that most of the repairs in this case can be described as current repairs though of course the matter is one of degree. If a carburetter of a motor-car ceases to function, we should incline to the view that the renewal of the carburetter in order to enable the car to keep the road is properly described as a running repair. On the other hand, if a car as a result of an accident had nothing left but a wheel and everything else had to be renewed, clearly the sensible view would be that the renewal of the car could only be described as an increase of capital. But apart from that, we have the provision of sub-section (2)(ix) which speaks in general terms of any expenditure (not being in the na ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Act which the Scottish case interprets was an Act which only contained deductions for depreciation and did not like the Indian Act specify under separate heads other deductions differently described. We do not think it would be right to hold that what I may call the omnibus clause (cl. vi) can be construed as extinguishing the right to deductions which are specifically outlined and defined in other sub-sections of the Act. We feel the result to be unsatisfactory and to be one which gives more to the assessee than was intended or indeed is just; but the fault is that of the draftsman of the Indian Act, who threw into the section the omnibus clause modelled on Section 12 of 41 Vic. c. 15 without reflecting that such a clause was not wante ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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