Fruit-bearing tree classification under agricultural income tax includes cashew trees, even where the nut is commercially more valuable.

Cashew trees are treated as fruit-bearing trees for purposes of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1955, because the statute defines "tope" as land containing large groups of fruit trees or valuable timber trees. The Court rejected the Tribunal's method of classifying trees by comparing the commercial value of the nut and the fruit, holding that the Act draws no distinction between fruit-bearing and nut-bearing trees. Once a cashew tree admittedly bears fruit, it cannot be excluded from the definition of "tope" merely because the nut is more valuable than the fruit, and land on which such trees grow remains assessable on that basis.

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Issues: Whether cashew trees are fruit-bearing trees within the meaning of the definition of "tope" under the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1955, so that land containing such trees is assessable on that basis.

Analysis: The statutory scheme defined "tope" as land containing large groups of fruit trees or valuable timber trees, and the exemption under section 10(1) depended on the extent of land measured in standard acres. The Court held that a cashew tree bears fruit and that the nut forms part of the fruit. The Tribunal's approach of classifying a tree as fruit-bearing or nut-bearing by comparing the relative value of the fruit and the nut was rejected as unsound. The Act did not create any distinction between fruit-bearing trees and nut-bearing trees, and once the tree admittedly bore fruit, there was no basis for excluding it from the definition of "tope" merely because the nut was more valuable than the fruit.

Conclusion: Cashew trees are fruit-bearing trees, the land on which they grow falls within the scope of "tope", and the assessee was not entitled to exclude such land from assessment on the footing accepted by the Tribunal.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute uses the expression "fruit-bearing tree" without distinguishing it from nut-bearing trees, a tree that admittedly bears fruit cannot be excluded from that category merely because its nut is commercially more valuable than its fruit.

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