1962 (8) TMI 76

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....mposing tax on the capital value of the land; and (ii) on a proper appreciation of the material on record, the "land" that is in dispute in these petitions is an "agricultural land" Sri E.S. Venkataramiah, the learned counsel for the assessee, contended that Parliament could not have enacted any law levying tax on the capital value of "land", be it agricultural or otherwise. According to him, "land" is included in the entry 49 of List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution and, therefore, Parliament could not have enacted any law imposing tax on the capital value of "land". We do not think that there is any force in this contention. The Wealth-tax Act was enacted evidently on the ba....

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....nd buildings" are concerned, the legislative power to levy gift-tax vests with the State legislature and, therefore, Parliament was not competent to enact the Gift-tax Act under the residuary powers. The ratio of that decision is not applicable to the facts of the present cases. This takes us to the next question whether the "land" with which we are concerned in these cases could be considered as "agricultural land". It is conceded by both the sides that if the land with which we are concerned in these cases are considered as "agricultural land" then no tax can be levied on the net value of the land on the basis of the Wealth-tax Act. Therefore, the question that has to be decided is whether the land in q....

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.... attention to section 63 of the Mysore Land Revenue Code which imposes some restrictions on the owners of "agricultural lands" in the matters of their utilisation. We do not think that that provision is of any assistance in finding out the true meaning of the expression "agricultural land". Next our attention was invited by Sri Venkataramiah to the observations of the Federal Court in Megh Raj v. Allah Rakhia*. Therein their Lordships, in passing, made some observations as regards the meaning of the expression "agricultural land" found in the Government of India Act, 1935. After examining the decisions rendered by various courts their Lordships observed thus: "In this state of the authorities, it seems t....