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TMI Blog2000 (11) TMI 128X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... clause (j) of section 5 and not to section 5 as a whole is put in issue in these appeals. Section 5 of the Agricultural Income-tax Act reads as follows : "5. Computation of agricultural income. ---The agricultural income of a person shall be computed after making the following deductions, namely :--- (a) any sums paid in the previous year on account of--- (i) land revenue or any tax in lieu thereof due to the Government, the Sreepandaravagai or the Sreepadam ; (ii) Jenmikaram ; (iii) Thiruppuvaram ; and (iv) local rates and cesses and municipal taxes, in respect of the land from which the agricultural income is derived. (b) any rent paid in the previous year to the landlord or superior landlord, as the case may be, in respect ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt for the purpose of re-claiming, improving or cultivating the property from which agricultural income is derived ; (j) any expenditure (not being in the nature of capital expenditure or personal expenses of the assessee) laid out or expended wholly and exclusively for the purpose of deriving the agricultural income ; (k) such other deductions as may be prescribed generally or in particular cases ; (l) in respect of depreciation of buildings, machinery, plant and furniture which are the property of the assessee and are required for the purpose of deriving the agricultural income, a sum equivalent to such percentage on the written down value, thereof as may in any case or class of cases be prescribed and where the buildings have been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the previous year in the purchase or replacement of cattle or implements, which are necessary for cultivation, to such extent as may be prescribed, less the amount realised by sale of the cattle or implements replaced or their estimated value ; (iv) any sum paid in the previous year in order to effect an insurance against loss or damage of crops or property from which the agricultural income is derived or insurance against loss or damage in respect of building, machinery, plant and furniture necessary for the purpose of deriving the agricultural income : Provided that any amount received in respect of such insurance in any year shall be deemed to be agricultural income for the purposes of this Act, and shall be liable to agricultura ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the three assessment years against the original remand orders and the orders subsequently passed by the Tribunal on appeals filed before it against the orders giving effect to earlier orders of remand. The respondent-assessee projected claims for deduction of the rent paid to its landlord in respect of the entire estate including the area covered by immature oil palm plants, which did not as also could not yield any income and interest paid on the loan obtained and utilised for the purpose of cultivation, etc., in respect of the entire estate comprising both mature yielding as well as unyielding immature oil palm plants. It is in adjudicating the tenability or otherwise of these claims that the High Court has chosen to consider the role of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... es not render those provisions to be read in a truncated or disjointed manner from the residuary clause ignoring the avowed object of section 5 as a whole, viz., computation of agricultural income, as defined in section 2(a) of the Act after making the deductions to which an assessee is found eligible. Thus viewed, when Explanation 2 specifically uses the words, "nothing contained in this section shall be . . ." expressing a specific intention to encompass the entire section 5 of the Act, reading it otherwise and to con fine its relevance and application to only clause (j) of section 5 would amount to not only rewriting the statutory provision by the court, but also doing violence to the plain and simple language used. When an Explanation o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... spective effect but the said occasion would have equally enlightened and served as an eye opener about the need for enacting the Explanation in such a manner as to avoid similar claims being projected in respect of expenditure or deductions envisaged in the various other limbs of section 5 as well, apart from clause (j) alone. This court has always been reiterating that if the intendment is not in the words used it is nowhere else and so long as there is no ambiguity in the statutory language resort to any interpretative process to unfold the legislative intent becomes impermissible and the need for interpretation arises only when the words in the statute are on their own terms ambivalent and do not manifest the intention of the Legislature ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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