Surplus from sale of 25 plots was treated as capital gains, not...

Surplus from sale of 25 plots was treated as capital gains, not business income, because the transaction had to be judged cumulatively: the assessee was not in real estate, the plots were acquired in one transaction, held for about six years, funded from own resources, and there was no evidence of repeated land dealing or intensive development showing a trading venture. Mere multiplicity of plots sold was insufficient to convert investment into stock-in-trade. Agricultural land was also held outside the capital-asset definition under section 2(14), so neither business income nor capital gains arose on its sale or the compulsory acquisition compensation.

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