TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1960 (11) TMI 14
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....ervancy of the Town. " Under section CXIII, it was provided that if there was any hindrance to acquisition by private treaty, the Government of Bengal upon the representation of the justices would compulsorily acquire the land and vest such land in the justices on their paying compensation awarded to the proprietor. The action which was taken by the notification was under section CXIII of the Municipal Act, and the acquisition was under Act VI of 1857, an Act for the acquisition of land for public purposes. The Panchannagram Estate was permanently settled under Regulation I of 1793. After the acquisition, the proprietor of Panchannagram Estate was granted abatement of land revenue assessed on the estate to the extent of Rs. 386-7-1. This represented the proportionate land revenue on the land acquired. In August, 1865, the Justices were required to pay Rs. 54,685-2-10 as compensation payable to the proprietor and to other persons holding interest in the land. Another piece of land which is described as an open level sewer, was also acquired about the same time, and separate compensation was paid for it. With the amount of conveyance charges, the total compensation thus paid by t....
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....n-title of the appellant (assessee), Srish Chandra Sen, who has, since the filing of the appeal, died, leaving behind 40 legal representatives who have been shown in the cause title of the appeal. The lease was renewed for further periods, and the rent was also progressively increased. The conservancy arrangements for which the land was held were carried out; but the lessee had the right to carry on cultivation with the aid of sewage. The assessee derived from this land various kinds of income, some being purely agricultural and some non-agricultural. For the assessment year 1942-43, the total agricultural income was computed at Rs. 99,987-9-6, and non-agricultural income at Rs. 12,503-8-0. Agricultural income-tax was charged by the State of Bengal under the Agricultural Income-tax Act, on the agricultural income less expenses. For the assessment years, 1943-44, 1944-45, 1945-46 and 1946-47, the assessments were made along similar lines. In 1947, the Income-tax Officer reassessed the income for the assessment year, 1942-43, after reopening the assessment under section 34 of the Income-tax Act on the ground that the so-called agricultural income had escaped assessment to income-ta....
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....de by the Income-tax Officer. The assessee next moved the Tribunal for a reference setting out a number of questions which, he contended, arose out of the Tribunal's order. The Tribunal referred the following question of law for the opinion of the High Court : " Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of this case the Tribunal's conclusion that the land was not assessed to land revenue within the meaning of section 2(1)(a) of the Indian Income-tax Act is justified ? " The reference was heard by Chakravartti, C.J., and Sarkar, J. (as he then was). In an elaborate judgment, the learned Chief Justice upheld the conclusions of the Tribunal, and answered the question in the affirmative. Sarkar, J., in an equally elaborate order expressed his doubts about the correctness of the Chief Justice's reasons,. but declined to disagree with him. The question that arises in this case, as we have stated in the opening of this judgment, is a very short one. It is an admitted fact that by payment of a lump sum the liability to pay land revenue was redeemed and no land revenue was demanded or was ever demandable from the justices or their assigns in perpetuity. The contention of the ass....
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....ut the interpretation to be placed on the conveyance by the Secretary of State which, according to him, only freed the justices from " payment " of the assessed land revenue but did not cancel the assessment. No Act of Legislature bearing upon the power of Government to accept a lump sum payment in lieu of the annual demands for land revenue has been brought to our notice. Counsel admitted that they were unable to find any such legislative provision. We have thus to proceed, as did the High Court, without having before us the authority of a legislative enactment. The only materials to which reference was made are : an extract from the explanatory notes in the Revenue Roll of the Touzi which shows that an abatement of land revenue pro tanto was granted to the proprietor of Panchannagram Estate, and a despatch from the Secretary of State for India (Lord Stanley)--No. 2 (Revenue) dated December 31, 1858--recommending redemption of land revenue by an immediate payment of a sum of equivalent value, together with a Resolution of Government (Home Department No. 3264 (Rev.) dated October 17, 1861) on permission to redeem the existing land revenue by the immediate payment of one sum equal....
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....e been no redemption of the liability by a down-payment if no land revenue could have been demanded. The fact that the recurring liability was redeemed by a lump sum payment itself shows that in the view of Government as well as of the Justices, the " Square Mile " was still subject to the recurring demand and was thus still assessed to land revenue. It is, therefore, not profitable to investigate the effect of acquisition on the continued liability of the land to land revenue between the time there was acquisition and the vesting of the land in the Justices. For the above reason, we need not examine at length the case in Lord Colchester v. Kewney where the acquisition by the Crown was held not to make the area acquired immune from land tax, because the burden of the tax would then have fallen upon the remaining land situat ed in the unit from which it was acquired and on which unit a quota of the land tax was chargeable. Such a position does not arise here, because the Panchannagram Estate was given abatement and a lump sum was paid to free the land acquired from the liability to land revenue. Similarly, the decision of this court in Collector of Bombay v. Nusserwanji Rattanji M....
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....not be said that the assessment for land revenue remained. The land was freed from that assessment as completely as if there was no assessment. Thenceforward, the land would be classed as revenue-free, in fact and in law. In the Land Law of Bengal (Tagore Law Lectures, 1895), page 81, S. C. Mitra described these revenue-free lands as follows : "There is another class of revenue-free lands which comes within these rules laid down in the Registration and Tenancy Acts, namely, lands of which Government has, in consideration of the payment of a capitalised sum, granted proprietary title free in perpetuity from any demand of land revenue." That this is what had happened here is quite apparent from the conveyance by the Secretary of State vesting the land in the justices. It is significant that there is no mention of the payment of Rs. 7,728-13-8 nor of the assessability of the lands to land revenue. On the other hand, the deed of conveyance merely reaffirmed the position, which existed before by stating : "to hold the said pieces of land, hereditaments and premises intended to be conveyed with the appurtenances except as aforesaid unto the said Justices of the Peace for the Town o....