DEVON TEA AND PRODUCE CO LTD Vs. AGRICULTURAL INCOME TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a public limited Company which owns plantations in the area of the former State of Mysore. The territories comprised in the former State of Mysore were integrated in the new State of Mysore formed on 1-11-1956 under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. The Mysore Agricultural Income Tax Act, 1955 was in force in the territories of the former State of Mysore and the petitioner was an assessee under the said Act.

(2.) The Legislature of the new State of Mysore enacted the Mysore Agricultural Income Tax Act, 1957 (Mysore Act No. XXII of 1957) hereinafter called the 'Act' and it came into force on the first day of October 1957. As the preamble of the Act shows, it was enacted to consolidate and amend the laws providing for the levy of a tax on the agricultural income from lands used for growing commercial crops in the State of Mysore. The Agricultural Income Tax Acts in force in the different areas integrated in the new State of Mysore were repealed by S. 69 of the Act; the repeal however saved the previous operation of the repealed enactments. S. 3 of the Act which is the charging section charged agricultural income tax at the rates specified in Part I of the schedule to the Act on the total agricultural income of the previous year of every person and that charge was levied for each financial year commencing from 1st day of April 1957. S. 4 of the Act provided that the Act shall apply to all agricultural income derived from lands situated in the State of Mysore by any person whether resident in the State or not. S. 2(1) (v) defined 'State' to mean 'State of Mysore'.

(3.) For the financial year 1957-58, the petitioner was assessed to agricultural income tax on its income derived from lands situated in the area of former State of Mysore during the accounting year ended 31-3-1957 by assessment order dated 30-12-1961 made by the Agricultural Income Tax Officer, Bangalore Circle, Bangalore. Under the said assessment Order tax was assessed at the rates provided under the Mysore Agricultural Income Tax Act, 1955. The petitioner appealed against the said order contending that for the assessment year 1957-58 it was not liable to be assessed under the Mysore Agricultural Income Tax Act, 1955 since the same had been repealed by S. 69 of the Act and that the assessment ought to have been made under the 1957 Act. The authorities under the Act having rejected that contention, the Commissioner of Agricultural Income Tax at the instance of the petitioner made a reference to this Court in A.I.T.R.C. No. 5 of 1966. This Court by its order dated 7-10-1966 answered the said reference stating that the agricultural income of the petitioner for the period ended 31-3-1957 is taxable under the provisions of the Mysore Agricultural Income Tax Act, 1957 and not under the provisions of the Mysore Agricultural Income Tax Act, 1955.