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TMI Blog1965 (12) TMI 39X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... income of the assessee for assessment in the years 1954-55 and 1956-57 respectively ? " The answer to the second question will be governed by judgment in Civil Appeals Nos. 157-158 of 1965, V. S. S. V. Meenakshi Achi v. Commissioner of Income-tax, and need not be considered in these appeals. The only question which has to be decided is the first question. Facts which are material are briefly these. The assessee is a firm carrying on business in real estates at Kualakangsar in the Federated States of Malaya. Some of the properties belonging to the assessee and which constituted its stock-in-trade suffered damage during the second world war. On August 14, 1947, the Government of India notified a scheme to give relief to Indian nationals ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a slight modification, which is not material for the purpose of this appeal. Thereafter, at the instance of the assessee, the Tribunal referred the questions, which have been already set out, to the High Court for their opinion. The assessee had opted for the special scheme formulated by the Central Board of Revenue and losses incurred by it had been allowed to be set off against the tax assessed in the years 1942-43 and 1941-42. Properties in Malaya belonging to the assessee were damaged during the war. Payments received by the assessee to compensate for the loss to those properties were subject to tax on the income included therein. That is conceded by counsel for the assessee. Bat counsel for the assessee submitted that under the sche ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... leaded that only the excess over the book value was liable to be taxed. The first question referred to the High Court was also on the footing that the entire amount claimed was capital receipt. It was for the first time argued before the High Court that since the assets lost or damaged retained a certain value in the books of account, only the difference between the amounts received by the assessee and the book value of the assets should be brought to tax. Even if that contention was open to the assessee, in our judgment, when the assessee put forward the claim for compensation under the scheme framed by the Central Board of Revenue that its entire property had been lost through enemy action and it obtained relief under the special scheme o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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