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TMI Blog1957 (5) TMI 8X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... agricultural income ? (2) Whether in the facts and circumstances of the case, the receipts from Kharagpur forest are agricultural income ?" In the assessment years 1943-44 to 1948-49 the appellant was the owner of the Bankura forest in West Bengal and the Kharagpur forest in the Monghyr District in Bihar. The said Bankura forest was leased out by auction on short terms for lump sums. The terms of the lease were not produced, but it was stated that according to the terms of the lease the lessee was entitled to cut down and remove all sal trees but not those which were more than three feet in girth and three feet from the ground and all other jungle trees other than fruit bearing trees and valuable timber trees. The lessee was further ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sment were confirmed. The appellant carried further appeals against these orders of the Appellate Assistant Commissioners to the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Calcutta Bench, but the Tribunal also rejected the appeals and confirmed the assessments. The appellant thereupon asked the Tribunal under section 66(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act for reference to the High Court inter alia of the above questions. The Tribunal, however, held that no question of law arose out of these orders and, accordingly, refused to refer the said questions of law as formulated by the appellant or any other question to the High Court and rejected the appellant's said reference applications. The appellant then applied to the High Court praying for a directio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sponsible for either plantation or the growth of the bamboos. The position with regard to sabai grass is more or less the same. With regard to timber trees, we find that there was a scheme by which the sal and ebony trees which grow in the forests were conserved by allowing each tree a circle of 15 feet by clearing the jungle of other trees which fall within this area, thus leaving sufficient space for the growth. No doubt wells were sunk but they were not for the purpose of watering the trees but were for supplying drinking water for the cartmen and bullocks which go into the forests to bring out the timber ............... It is alleged that coppice work was also undertaken near about 1883 but the only evidence is a government annual admin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... inition in section 2(1) of the Act. The conservation of the forest by allowing each sal and ebony tree a circle of 15 feet and cutting down of the trees and jungles which fell within that circle leaving sufficient space for growth and the employment of conservancy staff maintained to look after the forest were not considered by the Court sufficient in themselves to constitute any expenditure of human skill and labour upon the land so as to fall within the dictum of the Privy Council in Raja Mustafa Ali Khan v. Commissioner of Income-tax. We need not repeat here the principles which govern the decision of cases like these where forestry operations are performed by the assessee in regard to forest trees of spontaneous growth. They have been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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