TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2004 (4) TMI 632
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..... The relevant part of the schedule, as published in Tamil Nadu Government Gazette Extraordinary dated March 12, 1990 and with which we are concerned reads as under:- "Low Tension tariff V : Agriculture - (a) Small famers. (b) Tubewells sunk by Tamil Nadu Tubewell Corporation No charge State catering to small farmers. (c) Other farmers.- (i) Contracted load upto and inclusive of 5 H.P. Lumpsum of Rs. 50 per horse power per annum (ii) Contracted load above 5 HP Lumpsum of Rs. 75 per horse power per annum Explanation (i) -'Small Farmer' means a person whose total holding whether as owner, tenant or morgagee with possession, or partly in one capacity and partly in another, does not exceed two and a half acres of wet lands or five acres of dry lands. In computing the extent of land held by a person who holds wet and dry lands, two acres of dry lands shall be taken to be. equivalent to one acre of wet land. Explanation (ii) - Supply of power shall be given free of charge to the small farmers whose family is solely dependent on the income derived from his agricultural land holdings. ....
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.... with 'no charge'. The appellants claimed benefit of the notification submitting that they were engaged in fish farming, i.e. pisciculture, which is only a specie of agriculture and therefore they were also entitled to the benefit of notification dated 19.11.1990. However, the benefit wad denied to the appellants on the ground that they were fish farmers and engaged in pisciculture which could not be treated as agriculture. The High Court has also in its impugned judgment taken a view contrary to the contention of the appellants. They are in appeal by special leave. The short question which arises for decision is : whether pisciculture is agriculture? The Act, either in the main part, or in the Schedule detailing the tariff rates, does not define agriculture. We have, therefore, to proceed to examine how the tern agriculture is understood amongst the agriculturists and whether it was the intention of the State Legislature while enacting the Schedule as originally framed or of the State Government while issuing the notification dated 19.11.1990 to include pisciculture within the meaning of agriculture. It is settled rule of interpretation that the words not defined ....
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.... the issue and examined the question from very many angles taking into consideration several dictionaries and books on fish farming brought to its notice and also dealt with several decided cases to draw the conclusion that pisciculture is not agriculture. We have a direct decision of this Court available on the point and being a three-Judge Bench decision binds us. H is Commissioner of Income-tax West Bengal, Calcutta v. Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy, AIR (1957) Supreme Court 768 wherein the term 'agriculture' as occurring in sub-Section (1) of Section 2 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 which defines 'agricultural income' as meaning, amongst other things, 'any income derived from land by agriculture' came up for the consideration of this Court. Bhagwati, J., (as His Lordship then was) spoke on behalf of the three-Judges Bench. A reading of the judgment shows a research by looking into several authorities, meaning assigned by dictionaries and finding out how the term is understood in common parlance. The Court held that the term 'agriculture' has been defined in various dictionaries both in the narrow sense and in the wider sense. In the narrow sense agriculture ....
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....d also include forest products such as timber, sal and piyasal trees, casuarinas plantations, tendu leaves, horranuts etc. 4. The mere fact that an activity has some connection with or is in some way dependent on land is not sufficient to bring it within the scope of the term and such extension of the term 'agriculture' is unwarranted. The term 'agriculture', cannot be dissociated from the primary significance thereof which is that of cultivation of the land and even though it can be extended both in regard to the process of agriculture and the products which are raised upon the land, there is no warrant at all for extending it to all activities which have relation to the land or are in any way connected with the land. The use of the word agriculture in regard to such activities would certainly be a distortion of the term. It is, therefore, clear that agriculture, for our purpose, need not be kept confined in its meaning to the production of grain and food products for consumption of human beings alone; it can be extended as comprising within its meaning all the products of the land involving human labour but then it is the producing capacity of the land....
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....n contradistinction with the term 'aquaculture'. Pisciculture is a branch of aquaculture. Pisciculture is not agriculture. It is true that some of the dictionaries include rearing live stock within the meaning of agriculture. Livestok means domestic animals especially horses, cattle, sheep and pigs (See Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, p.737). Historically these animals are associated with agriculture as they either help in carrying out agricultural operations or they are domestically maintained in agricultural fields because can feed on products or byproducts of agriculture in its narrow sense. Fishes are not domestic animals and are not included within the meaning of the term 'livestock'. The learned senior counsel for the appellants invited our attention to the definition of term 'agriculture' as given in definition sections or interpretation clauses of several other enactments such as sub-section (2) of Section 2 of Tamil Nadu Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act, 1987, clause (b) of Section 2 of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Act, 1971, clause (a) of Section 2 of Agricultural and Rural Debt Relief Scheme, 1990, so defining the....