Lease rent accrues on the due date only, but an assessment is not quashed merely because earlier-year taxation is alleged.

Lease rent payable on or before 30 June was construed as accruing only on that date, because the lessee could pay earlier but the lessor could demand and enforce payment only then. The assessment for the relevant year was nevertheless not liable to be quashed merely because the assessing authority treated the rent as accruing earlier. The fact that the assessee claimed the same rent had been taxed in an earlier year, even if so, did not justify cancellation of the assessment for the year in question; the proper course, if any, was to seek modification of the earlier assessments. The revision therefore failed.

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Issues: Whether lease rent payable "on or before" 30th June accrued only on that date and whether the assessment for the relevant year could be annulled on the ground that the assessing authority treated the rent as having accrued earlier or that part of the rent had been brought to tax in an earlier year.

Analysis: The rent covenant gave the lessee the option to pay before 30th June, but the lessor could demand and enforce payment only on 30th June. On that construction, the rent for the lease year accrued only on 30th June and not earlier. However, the assessment could not be set aside merely because the assessing authority proceeded on an erroneous view of the date of accrual. Even on the assessee's own case, rent did accrue within the relevant accounting year, and an alleged prior assessment of the same rent, even if erroneous, did not justify cancellation of the assessment for the year in question. The assessee's remedy, if any, lay in seeking modification of earlier assessments.

Conclusion: The rent accrued on 30th June and not earlier, but the assessment for the relevant year was not liable to be quashed on that ground or on the plea of prior taxation; the assessee failed on the revision.

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