COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX U P LUCKNOW Vs. KUNWAR TRIVIKRAM NARAIN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal pursuant to a certificate granted by the Allahabad High Court under S. 66A(2) of the Income Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) is directed against the judgment of the High Court in a reference under the Act, answering the question referred to it in the negative. The question referred by the Appellate Tribunal is:

(2.) The relevant facts stated in the Statement of, the case are as follows:

(3.) The pension was paid regularly from year to year by the Government to Babu Har Narain Singh and his heirs. During the previous year of the assessment year 1949-50, the assessee received a sum of Rs. 36,396 on account of the aforesaid pension. The Income Tax Officer, in spite of the objection of the assessee, held that it was a regular annual income of the assessee and did not fall within the category of agricultural income tax. He observed that "in fact this income arose from a statutory obligation of the Government to pay it, and although the Government recouped this from the person with whom the land was settled, land in the genealogical tree of Malikana appears in the second degree, its immediate and effective source is the Government's statutory obligation to pay it, and this obligation is not land within the meaning of Income tax Act, vide Commer of Income-tax vs. Kamakhya Narain Singh, (1948) 16 ITR 325."