- (1.) A fine point of law, which lends itself to subtle spinning of gossamer webs of argument, falls for decision in these appeals by certificate. Were the policy of the law been plain, the language should have been clearer and the labours of courts could have been lesser. The arguments have been exhaustive, the precedents, in profusion, cited to the point of no return and the short issue expanded into learned length; but, at the end of the forensic journey, we are hesitantly inclined to leave the judgment under appeal undisturbed as the law set out therein has better appeal and theoretical soundness than the rival view point well-presented by Sri Ahuja for the appellant (Revenue) The planning and pruning of case law is perhaps necessary if time-consuming court proceedings are to be curbed. 'All our life is crushed by the weight of words: the weight of the dead', said Luigi Pirandello. Heavy case-law must not clog judicial navigation.
(2.) Next to a breviate statement of the facts which project the legal issue canvassed before us. Two tea estates were owned by two firms with several partners, two of whom were the respondents, in the two sets of appeals. C. As. 17 to 19 and C. As. 20 and 21 of 1972. The tea sold yielded income composite in character, being largely agricultural and partly non-agricultural. The complex situation of apportionment between the two heads for purposes of income-tax has been taken care of by Rule 24 of the Income-tax Rules, both the firms having been registered under the Act.
(3.) The respondents-partners were, in addition to their share in profits, entitled to salaries for services under the firms. The sole controversy turns on whether the sums so drawn as salaries were wholly liable to income-tax or only to the extent of 40% thereof which fell within the non-agricultural sector. Until the assessment year ending with March 31, 1959,the income-tax was so assessed that the whole of the agricultural income i.e., 60% of the total income, was out of bounds for income-tax (which included 60% of the salaries of the respondent-partners). But, for the years 1959/60 and 1960/61, the two assessment years involved in these appeals, a different course was followed. The mechanics is simple but the bone of contention between the Revenue and the assessees is as to whether any portion of the salaries so drawn for services rendered are at all agricultural income to be non-exigible to income-tax.;