1976 (9) TMI 32

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....the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1955, to revise the order of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Appellate Tribunal dated October 30, 1971, holding that cashew trees are not fruit-bearing trees, but nut-bearing trees. The question arose in the context of the assessability of the respondent herein to agricultural income-tax under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-t....

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....d by the Tribunal. The contention of the respondent was that cashew trees are not fruit-bearing trees, but only nut-bearing trees, and, therefore, the land containing those trees will not come within the scope of the definition of "tope" as contained in section 2(y) of the Act. The Tribunal accepted this contention of the respondent herein and directed the lower authorities to arrive at the standa....

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....-bearing tree only on the basis of the value of the fruits or the value of the nuts they yield. The nuts of the cashew trees alone are valuable and their fruits have very little value. In such a view, it cannot be stated that the cashew trees are fruit-bearing trees." On the face of it, the reasoning of the Tribunal for classifying tree as a fruit-bearing tree or a nut-bearing tree based upon t....

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....o. When the statute merely uses the expression "fruit-bearing tree", there is absolutely no scope for a fine distinction between a fruit-bearing tree and a nut-bearing tree, when the tree admittedly bears fruits, on the basis as to whether it is the fruit which is more valuable or the nut that is more valuable. Under these circumstances, we have no hesitation in holding that the Tribunal was in er....