Home Case Index All Cases Income Tax Income Tax + AT Income Tax - 2020 (9) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2020 (9) TMI 236 - ITAT BANGALORENature of land sold - Agricultural land or capital asset - Evidence of Agricultural operations carried out or not - claim of the Assessee that agricultural operations were carried out over the property and the property was actually used for agricultural purpose was sought to be established by relying on the classification of the property in revenue record - question of law or fact - HELD THAT:- There is no evidence of availability of Agricultural produce and how they were dealt utilized. The Revenue also contends that the burden of proof that the property was agricultural land at the time of transfer to claim exemption was on the Assessee. As already observed, the question whether the land was Agricultural land has to be decided on facts of each case and decided cases are only guidelines to be kept in mind. Facts and all the circumstances are to be considered as a whole and an overall view is to be taken in deciding whether the land was an agricultural land. In a given case, large number of circumstances may be indicative of agricultural character, but one circumstance may outweigh all of them and on its basis the land would be held to be a non-agricultural land. Question whether land was used for agricultural purpose or not to be considered as Agricultural land is a question of fact to be decided on the basis of facts and circumstances of a given case. The decisions cited by the learned counsel for Assessee in the case of Venkateswara Hospital is a case where the Hon’ble High Court of Madras refused to entertain an appeal on the ground that the question whether a property is Agricultural land or not is essentially a question of fact which action was confirmed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. [2018 (9) TMI 1101 - SC ORDER]. If one considers the facts and circumstances of the present case as a whole and an overall view is to be taken in deciding whether the land was an agricultural land, one would come to a conclusion that the property cannot be considered as Agricultural land. Though the circumstance that the land is classified as Agricultural in the revenue records is in favour of the assessee, in our view, the other circumstances pointed out above outweighs all of the circumstances in favour of the Assessee and on the basis of those circumstances, we are inclined to conclude that the property was not an agricultural land. We therefore find no merits in this appeal and hence dismiss the same.
|