Leasing income from cold storage and ice plant treated as business income despite earlier assessment under other sources.

Income from leasing out a cold storage and ice plant was held to be assessable as profits and gains of business, not under the head of other sources. The Court followed its earlier decision between the same parties on identical questions and found no basis to depart from that view merely because the income had previously been assessed under another head up to assessment year 1959-60. The reference was answered in favour of the assessee and against the Revenue.

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Issues: Whether income earned from leasing out the cold storage and ice plant was assessable as profits and gains of business rather than under the head of other sources, and whether the fact that such income had earlier been assessed under other sources up to assessment year 1959-60 altered that position.

Analysis: The questions referred were identical to an earlier reference between the same parties, in which the Court had already held that the leasing income from the cold storage and ice plant constituted business income. Following that decision, the Court answered the present reference on the same footing and found no reason to take a different view merely because the income had previously been assessed under another head.

Conclusion: The income from leasing out the cold storage and ice plant was rightly assessable as profits and gains of business and not as income from other sources; the questions were answered in favour of the assessee and against the Revenue.

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