TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1995 (1) TMI 405
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....any with its registered office at Tinsukia. The company filed income-tax return in the status of a company in its return the assessee claimed deduction for investment under section 32AB of the Act at the rate of 20 per cent of the total profit which included income of agricultural produced also. The Assessing Officer disallowed the claim of the assessee and excluded that portion of the income which the assessee earned from agricultural produce. The Assessing Officer passed order of assessment on 27-3-1991. The assessee preferred an appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals). The Commissioner (Appeals) after considering the conflicting decisions of various Courts held that the assessee was entitled to include the agricultural income of profit ....
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....idering the decisions of various Courts held that the assessee carried on basic operation and the income earned from the sale of Eucalyptus trees was agricultural income and was exempt from income-tax. The Tribunal further held that the assessee earned income out of the agricultural operations carried on the land and it held that if a person acquired interest in land on which basic operations were carried on by some one else and the subsequent operations were carried on by another person having interest in the land, then the sale proceeds would not be agricultural income. Having drawn a conclusion that the assessee had leasehold interest in the land on which Eucalyptus trees were planted by the lessors and the assessee carried on further ag....
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....lowing the same and, accordingly, the Tribunal confirmed the judgment and order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals). 4. We heard the learned counsels appearing on behalf of the parties. Mr. D.K. Talukdar, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the revenue submitted that the Tribunal ought to have referred the question to this Court for opinion. The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the assessee, on the other hand, contended that the Tribunal was justified in refusing to refer the question inasmuch as there was no referable question of law arising out of the order. 5. In CIT v. Raja Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy [1957] 32 ITR 466 , the Supreme Court observed thus : "A critical examination of the definition of 'agricultural inc....
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....at the term 'agriculture' receives a wider interpretation both in regard to its operations as well as the results of the same. Nevertheless there is present all throughout the basic idea that there must be at the bottom of it cultivation of land in the sense of tilling of the land, sowing of the seeds, planting, and similar work done on the land itself. This basic conception is the essential sine qua non of any operation performed on the land constituting agricultural operation. If the basic operations are there, the rest of the operations found themselves upon the same. But if these basic operations are wanting the subsequent operations do not acquire the characteristic of agricultural operations. All these operations no doubt r....