ITAT allowed the assessee's appeal and directed the AO to treat...

ITAT allowed the assessee's appeal and directed the AO to treat the impugned receipts as agricultural income exempt under s.10(1). The Tribunal held that tissue culture operations formed an integral part of the nursery's agricultural activity, were preceded and followed by on-land agricultural operations, and could not be segregated and taxed as business income. Applying the deeming provision in Explanation 3 to s.2(1A), plants, seedlings and saplings produced by tissue culture remain nursery products and qualify as agricultural income. The Tribunal found the authorities below erred in law and fact in isolating tissue culture from the broader agricultural processes carried out on the assessee's land.

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