TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1939 (6) TMI 9
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.... tendu tree or shrub, made into bundles of 60 to 150, the bundles are dried in the sun for about 10 days, then made up into larger bundles for transport to the factory, sometimes after watering. According to the Supplementary Case, the tendu plant is entirely of wild growth and propagates itself by root-suckers or by self sown seed; it is never planted by human agency and grows in jungle or waste lands; there is no breaking up of the land nor ploughing nor raising up of the soil; there is no watering nor manuring. No fencing nor other protection is afforded. Occasionally patches of tendu occur in cultivated holdings but the land on which the plants actually stand is not cultivated. In the cold whether dead leaves, broken twigs and thorns....
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....d area, without cutting, damaging or injuring the twigs, branches and trunks of the trees. Paragraph 6: that the lessor may collect grazing dues on cattle grazing in the forest and sell the produce thereof except the tendu leaves sold to the assessees. "Lease" Annexure "C" was for five years and gave the assessees the right "to collect and sell tendu leaves from plants growing on the lands of the village" (Mouza Taraimar). "Lease" Annexure "D" (above referred to) was for five years and entitled the assessee to "collect tendu leaves from the cultivated, uncultivated and waste lands of all the zemindari villages (284 in number)." "Lease" Annexure "E" was for 12 years and covered ten villages. It gave the lessees "absolute po....
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....(Act XI of 1922)"? In the argument before us it was not contended that items (1) Rs. 62,902 and (2) Rs. 30,970 were agricultural income. Obviously they were profits on the sale of tobacco like any other raw material: they were an ordinary trading profit and not agricultural income. The question remains as to the other items of profit (3) Rs. 51,491 and (4) Rs. 30,176 attributable to the tendu leaves. The burden is upon the assessees to show that these items come within the exceptions of Section 4(3)(viii). The assessees must, under Section 2(1) show that the income sought to be excepted is: (a) rent or revenue derived from land which is used for agricultural purposes and is either assessed to land revenue in British India or ....
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....ation of the shrub and as the shrub grows in the soil and as a part of it, is a cultivation of the soil in a legal and technical sense. How much such pruning contributes to the growth of the crop gathered as a whole is a difficult question of fact which the Income Tax Officer must determine as best he can from such evidence as he has at his disposal including such evidence as the assessees provide him with. Not the whole crop, nor even all the leaves in the shrub pruned are due to pruning or "cultivation", wild nature makes a large contribution. As regards the collecting of dead leaves, broken twigs and thorns in the cold whether and burning them, doubt is expressed in the case as to whether this is good for the growth of the tendu leave....