2003 (7) TMI 57

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....6 provides for composition of agricultural income-tax payable by the petitioner under the Act. The petitioner made application for composition and the same was accepted. Thereafter, the petitioner wrote letters claiming the benefit for the subsequent assessment years in the light of earlier permission. The respondents, however, directed the petitioner to file his returns for the assessment year 2000-01 in the light of an amendment in terms of the Act No. 5 of 2000. The petitioner is challenging the said endorsement in these petitions. The petitioner in W.P. No. 47091 of 2001 state that the respondents granted permission under section 66 in the light of an application for the purpose of composition under the Act. The petitioner filed Form....

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....position of agricultural income-tax.-(1) Where the total extent of land under plantation crop held by any person does not exceed fifty acres such person may subject to such rules as may be prescribed, apply to the prescribed officer for permission to compound the agricultural income-tax payable by him and to pay in lieu thereof a lump sum at the rate specified in the table." Sub-section (5) of section 66 reads as under: "The permission granted under sub-section (4) shall be in force for the year for which it is granted and shall continue to be in force for the next two years immediately following or until such time the extent of land holding exceeds the maximum specified in sub-section (1) whichever is earlier, and in respect of that ....

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....ffect, alter or destroy any right already acquired or to revive any remedy already lost by efflux of time". This finding of the Supreme Court is based on its earlier judgment reported in S.S. Gadgil v. Lal and Co. [1964] 53 ITR 231. In the subsequent judgment reported in CED v. M.A. Merchant [1989] 177 ITR 490, the Supreme Court has ruled as under: "There is a well settled principle against interference with vested rights by subsequent legislation unless the legislation has been made retrospective expressly or by necessary implication." The Supreme Court in K.M. Sharma v. ITO [2002] 254 ITR 772 based on its earlier judgment reported in S.S. Gadgil v. Lal and Co. [1964] 53 ITR 231 has ruled as under: "A taxing provision imposing ....