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2018 (12) TMI 274 - AT - Income TaxSale of land - nature of land - exemption from income-tax on the gains arising from the sale of aforesaid land claiming the same to be agricultural land used for agricultural purposes - Onus on the assessee to prove that its case strictly falls under exemption provisions as are contained in the 1961 Act - Held that:- As established rule of evidence as enshrined in Section 114(g) of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 that the evidences which could be and is not produced would , if produced , be unfavourable to the person who withholds it. It is incumbent on the assessee to produce all cogent evidences to substantiate and prove its case that gains arising from sale of land are exempt from income-tax. Further, we are also reminded at this stage of landmark decision of Hon‟ble Supreme Court decision in the case of CIT v. Raja Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy [1957 (5) TMI 6 - SUPREME COURT] as the forest is more than 150 years old, the areas which had thus become denuded and replanted cannot be considered to be negligible. The position therefore is that the whole of the income derived from the forest cannot be treated as non-agricultural income. If the enquiry had been directed on proper lines, it would have been possible for the Income-tax authorities to ascertain how much of the income is attributable to forest of spontaneous growth and how much to trees planted by the proprietors. The assessee has fairly pleaded that one more opportunity be provided to the assessee and the assessee will appear before the authorities below and file all necessary cogent evidences to prove that the said land was an agricultural land used by the assessee for agricultural purposes and the assessee is entitled for exemption from income-tax on the gains which arose on sale of the said land - we are setting aside and restoring this matter back to the file of AO for denovo framing of an assessment by afresh determination of the issue on merits - Decided in favour of assessee for statistical purposes.
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