TMI Blog2000 (1) TMI 162X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sonal effects of the assessee and that, therefore, there can be no capital gains was rejected by the Assessing Officer, who viewed that there could be no intimate connection between the goats and the person of the assessee. On appeal, the Appellate Commissioner confirmed the order of assessment in this regard. Hence the instant second appeal by the assessee before us. 3. The learned counsel for the assessee submitted that : The assessee has been basically an agriculturist having own as well as leasehold land's. During the accounting year 1987-88 the assessee purchased on very many dates goats totalling to 1172 for a sum of Rs. 1,69,960 and during the accounting year relevant for assessment year 1990-91 the assessee had sold 975 goats for ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ] 156 ITR 448 (Bom.) which has also duly considered the decision in the case of H.H. Maharaja Rana Hemant Singhji v. CIT [1976] 103 ITR 61 (SC). 4.1 On the other hand, the learned Representative for the Revenue countered, to say in brief, by defending the order impugned and also by submitting that : It is true that animals are excluded as non-assets as certain agricultural lands are not capital assets under section 2(14) of the Act. But nowhere in the Income-tax Act it has been stated that income arising out of purchase and sale of goats is exempt from tax. Even though the assessee has claimed that the goats were used on its lands in order to procure their wastes as natural manure the term "agriculture" does not extend to those activities ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... egularity of the sale of milk was effected and the quantity of milk sold showed that what the assessee carried on was a regular business of producing milk and selling it as a commercial proposition. Applying the ratio decidendi and considering the quantity of goats sold in the instant case it can well be said that the purchase and sale of goats is a commercial proposition and the income is liable to tax. In the unabridged edition of the Random House Dictionary of the English language at page 1075 the expression "personal effects" means privately owned articles consisting chiefly of clothing, toilet items etc. for intimate use of an individual. According to Black's Law Dictionary, 5th Edition at page 1029, the expression means "articles asso ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ffects" the Apex Court in the case of H.H. Maharaja Rana Hemant Singhji held that an intimate connection between the effects and the person of the assessee must be shown to exist to render them personal effects within the meaning of the expression used in section 2(4A)(ii) of the Income-tax Act, 1922. The Legislature intended only those articles to be included within the expression "personal effects" which were intimately and commonly used by the assessee. In the instant case, no such intimate connection between the goats and the person of the assessee was shown to have ever existed. Where the assessee sold 845 items of silver articles and vessels and claimed that capital gains arising out of such sale would be exempt from tax as the articl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the goats having died. The assessee's version is that the goats were purchased only for getting the natural manure. The Assessing Officer viewed that the assessee has derived short-term capital gains by the sale of goats. The only stand of the assessee is that goats owned have to be treated as personal effects of the assessee and if so they cannot be treated as capital assets for the purpose of section 2(14) of the Act. According to section 2(14) capital asset means property of any kind by an assessee whether or not connected with his business or profession excluding certain items like stock-in-trade, consumable stores or raw materials held for the purpose of business, personal effects, agricultural land in India not being land situated ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Commissioner has taken his view that the Assessing Officer was justified in holding that goats are not personal effects in the light of the aforesaid Apex Court decision particularly and concluded that the Assessing Officer was justified in computing short-term capital gains on the sale of goats. 5.3 In our considered view on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in the light of the case laws referred to above, we are unable to find any flaw either in the order of the Assessing Officer or that of the Appellate Commissioner who have duly and accordingly well dealt with the issue involved from various angles carrying out excursions to several case laws and also to law dictionaries and arrived at the correct conclusion that th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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