THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, BOMBAY versus THE ELPHINSTONE SPINNING AND WEAVING MILLS LTD.

19~0

K avalappata Kottarathil Kochuni v. State of Madras

Sarkar }.

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3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

953

fail. If the gift is invalid, the petition must fail on the ground that the Act has not affected the petition ers' rights in any lands held by them. We would, therefore, dismiss that petition with costs except the costs of the hearing before us for all the three peti tions were heard together.

Lastly, we come to Petition No. 41 of 1956. This petition must clearly be dismissed. It was filed by the son of the petitioner in Petition No. 443 of 1955 claiming to be entitled to the sthanam lands situate in an area which was formerly Pi1'rt of the Cochin State. It is not in dispute that the impugned Act was never extended to that area. Therefore, whether the gift to him was valid or not, as to which we say nothing, the petitioner in this petition is not affected by that Act at all. His petition is clearly misconceiv ed. His petition is, therefore, dismissed and he will pay the costs excepting the costs of the hearing.

ORDER OF COURT.

In view of the judgment of the majority, Petition No. 443 of 1955, is allowed with costs, Petition No. 40 of 1956, is allowed without costs, and Petition No. 41 of 1956, is dismissed without costs.

May 4,

THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, BOMBAY v. THE ELPHINSTONE SPINNING AND WEAVING MILLS LTD. (S. K. DAS, J. L. KAPUR and M. HIDAYATULLAH, JJ.) loss but paying dividends Additional income-tax, liability to pay-Construction of taxing statute-Income-tax Act, I922 (XI of I922), s. 3-Finance Act, I9SI (23 of I9SI), First Schedule, Paragraph B.

Income-tax-Assessee incurring

The assessee had made profits during the assessment year 1951-52 but after deduction of the depreciation allowance it was found to have incurred a loss for income-tax purposes. In the same year the assessee declared dividends. The Income-tax Officer treated this amount as ' excess dividend ' and levied additional income-tax as provided in paragraph B of Part I of the First Schedule to the Indian Finance Act, 195L The assessee contended that inasmuch as there was no income at all which wa~

r

r--·

954

SUPREME COURT REPORTS

[l9fjUj

Weaving

tl s

Iy6o

taxable the words "on the total income" in pa.ragraph B did not apply to it and no additional income-tax could be levied. co 1nniissironer of ~fhe appellant, relying on the proviso to paragraph B, contended that additional income-tax was imposed on excess dividend and· Jncorne Ta~. if excess dividend was paid out, the liability to tax arose: Bombay Held, that the assessee was notliable to pay additional income- v. tax. The liability to tax was imposed by s. 3 of,the Income-tax Etphinstone 'P'""'i!J¥/'"i d Act and the Finance Act merely laid down the rates at which tax 1 ·was to be levied on the total income. If there was no income there was no question of applying a rate to the "total income" and no income-tax or super-tax could possibly result. The word "additional" in the expression "additional income-tax" implied that there was a tax before. The expressions "charge on the total income " and "profits liable to tax " in paragraph B con templated only those cases where there was income and not cases where there was loss. Consequently the expression "divi dends payable out of such profits" could only apply when there were profits and not.when there were no profits. The imposition of additional income-tax was conditioned by the existence.of income and profits. The legislature used language appropriate to income and applied the rate to the "total income". Where there was no total income the law could not apply and the courts could not be asked to supply the omission made by the legislature or to delete or to modify any words. If the words of a taxing statute failed then so did the tax. The courts could not, except rarely and in clear cases, help the draftsman by a favourable construc tion.

Curtis v. Stovin, (r889) 22 Q.B. 5r3, Commissioner of Income tax v. Teja Singh, [r959] 35 I.T.R. 408 S.C., Whitney v. Commis sioners of Inland Revenue, (r925) IO T.C. 88, special Commissioners of Income Tax v. Linsleys, Ltd., (r958) 37 T.C. 677 and Com missioners of Inland Revenue v. South Georgia Co. Ltd. (r958) 37 T.C. 725, distinguished.

The Cape Brandy Syndicate v. The Commissioners of Inland Revenue, (r920) r2 T.C. 358 and Wolfson v. Commissioners of Inland Revenue, (r949) 3r T.C. r4r, referred to.

The proviso to paragraph B prescribed varying rates for varying circumstances; it dealt with rates alone and not with the chargeability to tax. There were no words in this proviso making the excess dividend into income or subjecting it to tax independently of the charge to tax on the total income.

CIVIL APPELLATE

JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal

No. 427 of 1957.

Appeal from

judgment and order dated September 9, 1955, of the Bombay High Court in Income-tax Reference No. 31/X of 1954.

the

K. N. Rajagopal Sastri and D. Gupta, for the

appellant.

N. A. Palkhivala, S. N. Andley and J. B. Dada

chanji, for the respondents and intervener.

~ S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPOR1'S

955

1960. May 4. The Judgment of the Court was

I9 60

delivered by

HIDAYATULLAH, ,J.-The High Court of Bombay in n. reference under s. 66( 1) of the Indian Income-tax Act by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Bombay, was referred the following two questions for decision:

Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay

Elphv. spin~7~;';f.

1

(1) Whether the assessee Company was liable to pay Weaving Mills Ltd.

-

H idayatullah J.

--'1

-

additional income-tax ? and

(2) If the answer to question No. 1 is in the affirma- tive, whether the levy of the additional income.tax is ultra vire8 ? The High Court answered the first question in the negative and in the circumstances, left the second question unanswered. This appeal the judgment and order of the High Court on a certificate granted by it. The Commissioner of Income-tax is the Elphinstone Spinning and the appellant, and Weaving Mills Co. Ltd., Bombay (the assessee Com pany) is the respondent.

is against

The facts may now be stated briefly. For the assessment year 1951-52 (the previous year .being the calendar year 1950), the ~tss.essee Company was found to have incurred a loss of Rs. 2,19,848 and was thus adjudged to be not liable to income-tax. In that year, the assessee Company had made profits, but the depreciation allowance under the Income-tax Act came to Rs. 7,84,063, thus converting the profit into loss for income-tax purposes. In the same year, the assessee Company declared dividends a.mounting to Rs. 3,29,062. The Income-tax Officer treated this amount as •excess dividend' and levied additional income-tax as provided in Paragraph B of Part I of the First Schedule to the Indian Finance Act, 1951. to be This additional income-tax was computed Rs. 41,132-12-0. The contention of the assessee Com pany that it was not liable to pay additional income tax was not accepted by the Tribunal, but the High Court, on an examination of the relevant provisions and the scheme of the Indian Income-tax Act and the Finance Act, 1951, held that it was sound. Hence this appeal by the Commissioner of Income-tax.

We are concerned with the Finance Act, 1951, and

Paragraph B of the First Schedule reads :

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SUPREME COURT REPORTS

(19~0)

1960

"B. In the case of every company-

Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay v. Elphinston8 Spinning & W~aving 1W-1lls Ltd.

Hidayatullah .f,

•

On the whole of total income

Rate Four annas in the rupee

Surcharge one-twentieth of the rate specified in the preceding column:

·

Provided that in the case of a company which, in respect of its profits liable to tax under t'he Income-tax Act for the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1952, has made the prescribed arrange ments for the declaration and payment within the territory of India excluding the State of J ammu and Kashmir, of the dividends payable out of such profits, and has deducted super-tax from the divi dends in accordance with the provisions of sub section (3D) or (3E) of section 18 of the Act--

(i) Where the total income, as reduced by seven annas in the rupee and by the amount, if any, exempt from income-tax, exceeds the amount of any dividends (including dividends payable at a fixed rate) declared in respect of the whole or part of the previous year for the assessment for the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1952, and no order has been made under sub-section (1) of sec tion 23A of the Income-tax Act, a rebate shall be allowed at the rate of one anna per rupee on the amount of such excess;

(ii) Where the amount of dividends referred to in clause (i) above exceeds the total mcome as reduced by seven annas in the rupee and by the amonnt, if any, exempt from income-tax, there shall be charged on the total income an rtdditional income-tax equal to the sum, if any, by which the aggregate amount of income-tax actually borne by such excess (hereina.fter referred to as' the excess dividend') falls short of the amount calculated at the rate of five annas per rupee on the excess dividend.

For the purposes of the above proviso, the ex pression 'dividend' shall have the meaning assign ed to it in clause ·(6A) of section 2 of the Income-tax Act, but any distribution included in that expression,

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3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

957

made during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1952, shall be deemed to be a dividend Commissioner of declared in respect of the whole or part of the previous year.

Income Ta,., fl,·mbay

1 960

For the purposes of clause (ii) of the above proviso, the aggregate amount of income-tax actually borne by the excess dividend shall be determined as We •ving Mills Ltd. follows:-

v. Elphinstone spinning a;.

H idayatullah J.

(i} the excess dividend shall be deemed to be out of the whole or such portion of the undistributed profits of one or more years immediately preceding the previous year as would be just sufficient to cover the amount of the excess dividend and as have not likewise been taken into account to cover an ex·cess dividend of a preceding year;

(ii) such portion of the excess dividend as is deemed to be out of the undistributed profits of each of the said years shall be deemed to have borne tax,-

( a) if an order has been made under sub-section (1) of section 23A of the Income-tax Act, in respect of the undistributed profits of that year, at the rate of five annas in the rupee, and

(b) in respect of any other year, at the rate appli cable to the total income of the company for that year reduced by the rate at which rebatP, if any, was allowed on the undistributed profits." The contention of the assessee Company was that inasmuch as there was no income at all which was taxable, the words "on the total income" did not apply to it and no additional income-tax could be charged. The Tribunal interpreted the Paragraph to cover even a case where there was a loss holding that ' even a loss may be a total income', because if total income had to be computed in the manner laid down in the Indian Income-tax Act, the total income might be a negative figure. The Tribunal also held that inasmuch as excess dividends were to be deemed to have come out of the undistributed profits of the preceding year or years and such undistributed profits were available, the assessee Company was liable. The High Court dicl not accept these rea'lom, and reluctantly held, for reasons which may not be detailed at the present

l~f

958

SUPREME COURT REPORTS

t [1960]

(

196o

moment., that the assessee Company did not come within the letter of the law, however much the inten- • tion might have impose an a ditionn. income-tax under such circumstances. The Commis- sioner now contends that the High Court ought to have read the Paragraph B as modified by the inte11- W"ving Mills Ltd. tion or to have treated it as an independent charging

Comw.issinner of Tneome Tax, R··mbay v. ff~f;~7~~'J:,

een to

d

b

1

Hid•yatullah .f.

section.

The liability to tax is imposed not by the Finance Act but by the Indian Income-tax Act. Section 3 of the latter Act is the charging section, and it provides that the tax shonld be collected at such rate or rates on the total income as laid down in any Central Act. The Finance Act is an annual Act prescribing the rate or rates. We are concerned with the Finance Act, 1951. Section 2 of .the ]'inance Act prescribes the rates of income-tax by its Firs!• Schedule, and by the seventh sub.section of that section provides:

"For the purposes of this section and of the rates of tax imposC'd thereby, the expression 'total income' means total income as determined for the purposes of income-tax or super-tax, as the case may be, in accordance with the provisions of the Income-tax Act-.."

It is thus clear from this that if there is no income, there is no question of applying a rate to the 'total income' and no income-tax or super-tax can possibly result. The Commissioner, however, relies upon the proviso to Paragraph B of the ]'irst Schedule, and says that the tax is imposed on excess dividend and if excess dividend is paid out, the liability to tax must arise.

The proviso was framed to discourage the paying of large dividends quite disproportionate to the income. For this purpose, a ceiling was laid down. That ceiling was nine annas in the rupee of the total income reduced by any portion of that income which was exempt from income-tax. If only nine annas in the rupee from the income were .paid as dividend, there were no consequences in law. If, however, the dividends paid amounted to less, a rebate of one anna in the rupee in the tax was given. This was provid ed by the first part of the proviso. There was,

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3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

959

b

h

x96o

'f

Eom.iaii

however, a provision for enhanced tax in the second part, which worked the other way round. Where the dividend distributed exceeded the total income as co;:r;;,;::; 0;~,:.01 reduced by seven annas in the rupee, there was ch:uged on the total income an additional income-tax h" 1 equa to t e sum, 1 any, y w ich the aggregate amount of income-tax actually borne by such excess Weaving Mills Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "excess dividend") falls short of the amount calculated at the rate of five Hidayatullak J. annas per rupee on the exr:ess dividend. In simpler language, there was a rebat J of one anna on anything saved from 9/16th of the total income, and there was an extra payment of one anna on the amount paid in excess of it. The income-tax, in either event, was payable on the total income and the additional income .. tax on the excess dividends.

v, Eiphinstone spinning o;,

Now, the difficulty arises in applying this proviso. Where there is a total income and there is a payment of dividend either more or less than the limit fixed, one can easily find the figures by which the total income as reduced exceeds or falls short of the div idends and the additional tax that has to be paid. But when the total income is a negative figure and no tax on the total income is levied, the words of the second part of the Paragraph 'total income ', 'profits liable to tax', 'dividends payable out of such profits ' and 'an additional income-tax', cease to have the meaning they were intended to convey. The Commis sioner contends that some of these words may be ignored as being surplusage or a drafting error, and refers to rulings in which such a course was adopted. The first case he relies on is Curtis v. Stovin (1 ). In that case, the words of the statute were :

"It shall be lawful for either party to the action ... to apply to a judge of the High Court ... to order such action to be tried in any court in which the action might have been commenced, or in any court convenient thereto ... "

The word " court" was defined as " county court " in that statute. Lord Es her, M.R., held that the words should be extended to mean "in any county court in which, if it had been a county court action, the action

(1) \1889) 22 QB. 513.

r

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',-

960

SUPREME COURT REPORTS

[1960]

l

I

1960

Comniissio11er of Income Tax, Bombay v.

might have commenced". The ambiguity which would have otherwise arisen was removed by taking aid from the a ternative c ause "or in any court. convenient there-to" which referred to locality, and it was said that the first clause meant a county court in the district of. fff;!~~~~n;,, · wh~ch the parties resided, or in which one of them In that case, however, there were deter minative words helping construction. It is to he Hidayatullah J. noticed that Lord Esher, M. B., also warned a.gainst doing by construction what only a legislature could do by enactment, in the following words:

Weaving Mills Ltd. resided.

"It is, no doubt, very easy for a judge to say that he is introducing words into an Act only by way of construing it, while he is really making a new Act." The words "if it had been a county court action " which were read as implicit in the section were neces sary to give a sensible meaning consistent with the intention expressed by other clear words.

The above case was applied and followed in Commis sioner of Income-tax v. Teja Singh('), which is next In that case, the construction, if literally relied upon. made, was apt to make one section nugatory. This Court laid down that "a construction which leads to such a result must, if that is possible, be avoided ". It, however, quoted also the observations of Lord Dunedin in Whitney v. Commissioners of Inland Revenue (') that:

~ A ·statute is designed to be workable, and the interpretation thereof by a court should be to secure that object, unless crucial omission or clear direction makes that end unattainable." The next case relied upon is Special Commissioners of Income-tax v. Linsleys Ltd. (3 ). It dealt with an obvious drafting error. Section 68(2) of the English FinanceAct, 1952, contained a reference to Paragraph (a) of the proviso to sub.s. (2) of s. 262 of the lncome tax Act, 1952, and the section went on to say of that Paragraph parenthetically "which relates to the deductions allowable in computing the actual income from all sources of an investment company in relation to which a direction is in force under sub-section 1 of

(t) [t959l 35 I.T.R, ~08 S,C,

(2) (r925) 10 T.C. 88, no.

(>) (ro58) 37 T. C. 677,

-,

I

3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

961

that section". As a summary of Paragraph (a), it was entirely wrong and mi;;leading. Since the Para graph was there for every one to read, the drafts man's summary of it in the brackets was not accepted. Lord Reid observed :

Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay v. Elphinstone Spinning &

" The difficulLy does not arise from the enacting

-- H idayatullah J.

wordi3 but from the words in brackets which purport Weaving Mills Ltd. to describe the proviso to Section 262(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1952. Those words could well be held to support the view of the Court of Appeal, but they seem to me to be a misdescription of the pro viso to Section 262(2). This is one of the places where I think that obscurity bas resulted from a failure of the draftsman to anticipate a case like the present-as I have said, a very natural failure. In fact the proviso merely deals with the deductions to be allowed in computing actual income. But the words in brackets in Section 88(2) refer to deduc tions in computing actual income of a company 'in relation to which a direction is in force' under Section 262(1). It would seem that these words have crept in because the draftsman assumed that a direction would always be given automatically in the case of an investment company and did not realise that a computation must first be made to determine whether the company has in fact any actual income. Whether that be the true explanation or not, I cannot regard the presence of these words in brackets, which are mere description, as of much weight in comparison with the other considerations to which I have referred."

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If the section was there, its meaning could be taken from the words used there and not from a description in another of what it enacted, put parenthetically statute. The case cited is hardly in point.

The last case cited

is Commissioners of Inland Revenue v. South Georgia Co. Ltd. (1 ). The words of a proviso there construed, ran as follows:

"Provided that where the said gross relevant distributions exceed the profits computed without ahatement and including franked investment income,

962

SUPREME COURT REPORTS

[196U]

60

'9

CommiS<ionu of

the net relevant distributions shall be ... " of the English Finance Act, 1947).

(S. 34(2)

Income r "'· The word "including " gave some difficulty.

In the Court of Session, the word was equated to "adding " IJombay correcting, as it was felt, a d~afting inaccuracy. In the Elph;~stone spinning & House of Lords, however, thrn change was not accepted

Weauing M.tls Ltd. and a meaning was found. Hidayat~llah J.

The learned counsel for the respondent, on the other hand, relies upon the observations of Rowlatt, J., in The Gape Brandy Syndicate v. The Commissioners of Inland Revenue(') to the effect that in a taxing measure one can only look at the language since there is no room for an intendment. He also refers to the speech of Lord Simonds in Wolfson v. Commissioners of Inland Revenue ('), where the following passage occurs at p. 169:

"It was urged that the constrnction that I favour leaves an easy loophole through which the evasive taxpayer may find escape. That may be so; but I will repeat what has been said before. It is not the function of a court of law to give to words a strained and unnatural meaning because only thus will a taxing section apply to a transaction which, had the Legislature thought of it, would have been covered by appropriate words. It is the duty of the Court to give to the words' of this Sub-section their reas.onable meaning and I must decline on any ground of policy to give to them a meaning which, with all respect to the dissentient Lord Justice, I regard as little short of extravagant. It cannot even be urged that unless this meaning is given to the Section it can have no operation. On the con. trary, given its natural meaning it will bring within the area of taxation a number of cases in which by a familiar device tax had formerly· heen avoided:" The learned counsel contends that the artificial con struction should not be resorted to in this case.

There is no doubt that if the words of a taxing statute fail, then so must the tax. The Courts cannot, except rarely and in clear cases, help the draftsman by a favourable construction. Here, the difficulty is not one of inaccurate language only. It is really this

(11 (1920) 12 T.C. 358, 366.

(2) (1910) 31T.C.141, 169.

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3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

963

.

:

h

k

r 96o

d'fi

t o no

Income Tax, Bombay

ta e m t . e mo 1 cations w 1c 1 t e earne Weaving Mills Ltd.

that a very large number of taxpayers are within the words but, some of them are not. Whether the enact- ment might fail in the former case on some other Commi<sioner 01 ground (as has happened in another case decided to-day) is not a matter we are dealing with at the moment. His sufficient to say here that the words d d counsel for the appellant suggests. The word 'addi- tional ' in the expression must refer to a state of affairs in which there has been a tax before. The words 'charge on the total inoome' are not appropriate to describe a case in which there is no income or there is loss. The same is the case with the cxprPssion 'profits liable to tax'. The last expres- sion 'dividends payable out of such profits' can only apply when there are profits and not when there are no profits.

' additional income-tax' Hidayatullah J.

v. Elrhi~<tone Spznmnf(&

h' J h

l

-

imposed on

It is clear that the legislature had in mind the case of personA paying dividends beyond a reasonable por tion of their income. A rebate was intended to be given to those who kept within the limit and a.n those who enhanced rate was to be exceeded it. The law was calculated to reach those pernons who did the latter even if they resorted to the device of keeping profits back in one year to earn rebate to pay out the sa.me profits in the next. For this pmpose, the profits of the earlier years were deemed to be profits of the succeeding years. So far so good. But the legislature failed to fit in the law in the scheme of the Indian Income-tax Act under which and to effectuate which the Finance Act is passed. The legislature used language appropriate to income, and applied the rate to the' total income'. Obviously, therefore, the law must fail in those cases where there is no total income at all, and the Courts cannot be invited to supply the omission made by the legislature. It is quite possible that the legislature did not con template the imposition of tax in circumstances such as these, and we are not prepared to read the proviso without the words ' on the total income ' or after modi~ying -this and other expressions. The High Court has given adequate reasons to show that these words are quite inappropriate, where the total i.ncome; if it

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964

SUPREME COURT REPORTS

[1960)

·o~o

CfJmmi.>~inneY of tncnme Ta•. Rombay Elhh;~,10n, spinnin< &

can be described as income at all, is a loss. The imposition of the additional income- tax is conditioned by the existence of income and profits, to the total·of which income the rate is made applicable. Unless some other amount., not strictly income, is by law deemed to be income. (see fo,r example, McGregor & Balfour Weavin< Mill.< Lid. Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income.tax (1) ), we cannot im1Jrove the existing law by deeming it to be so by our interpretation.

Hidayatullah .f,

The Commissioner next contends that the proviso speaks of excess dividends, which means that dividends in excess of the permissible limits have been paid. He says that where the income is nil or a negative figure, whatever is paid is excess dividend, and indeed, the Tribunal also felt that the excess dividends in this case were more because of the loss sustained. This argu ment has a familiar ring, It is really that "you can have more than nothing".

Reference was made in this connection to Commis sioners of Inland Revenue v. South Georgia Co. Ltd.(') where Lord Simonds observed at p. 736:

the gross

"Upon this proviso, interpreted in the light of Paragi:aph 7 of the Schedule as amended, the Crown makes a very simple case: upon the undisputed figures relevant distributions were £ 181,000, and the profit,s including franked invest ment income were nil (I may interpolate that the reference to abatement may throughout be dis regarded) : therefore the net relevant distribution the excess of £ 181,000 over nil, i.e., must be £ 181,000: nothing has to be brought in under (a) of the proviso, for there were no profits."

Jteliance was also placed upon the observations at p. 737 (ibid) where it was observed :

"The learned Dean of Faculty on behalf of the Respondents urged, in support of the construction that he invited your Lordships to adopt, that it was really meaningless to speak of a nil profit or of adding something to it, and this plea found favour with the Lord President. As I understood it, this was only relevant if the view was accepted that there were two separate operations and not a single

(t) [tq50] 36 !.T.R. 65 S.C.

(2) (1958] 37 T.C. 725

3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

965

In the view which I take, therefore, computation. it does not arise, but I think it right to say that I see no impropriety of language in speaking of a Commissioner of nil profit where the question is whether any or what profit has been made. And the answer would be equally valid in the case of an exact balance or of a loss."

Incmne Tax, Bombay v. Elphinstone spinning o;. Weaving Milts Ltd.

196?

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,

J -

These passages were used in the other case decided Hidayatullah J. today, in which there were no profits of the previous yea.rs. There is, however, this difficulty that there the tax was laid on the net relevant distribution, and it was conceded that no charge could be imposrd if (see p. 736). The pro- the proviso was inapplicable visions of Paragraph 7 of the Schedule as amended by s. 32 of the English Finance Act, 1947, were entirely different, and the proviso to s. 34(2) of the English Act was held applicable. The scheme of the provisions we are interpreting is entirely different. Reliance was also placed upon Rajputana Agencies Ltd. v. Commis- ), but we find nothing there to sioner of Income-tax (1 support the appellant's case. Similarly, in ~JYl cGregor and Balfour Ltd. v. Oommis8ioner of Income-tax (2 ), the words were held to be apt 'to impose a charge'. It is obvious enough that unless they were so or unless the Act covered the instant cases, the tax must fail.

The gist of the matter is not the possibility of an arithmetical calculation as in the English case. The rate in the proviso is applicable to the 'total income ' though after the application of a simple arithmetical calculation. The ' total income', however, is still the total income as determined for the purpose of income tax, and in the case of businesses, the rules require that the total income shall not include the depreciation allowance. By the application of those rules if the total income ceases to exist, the second paragraph of the proviso, as it is worded, ceases to be workable. All the four expressions to which we have referred earlier cease to have natural meaning, and the Com missioner is again driven to contend that we must delete the offending words or suitably modify them. This we are not prepared to do, because the intention might well have been not to comprehend such cases.

{l) [1959] 35 I.T.R. lE8.

(2) [1959] 36 I.T.R. 65 S.C.

125

9CG

SUPREME COURT REPORTS

[1960)

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b

z96o

) ·

Th

__

to t e to ta mcome.

l' d as to e a pp ie

The Commissioner next contends that we may treat Commissioner of this as an independent charging section and give effect to it. The proviso is to Paragraph B in the First Income Tax, Schedule of the Finance Act, and the Schedule only Bo~~''Y imposes a rate of tax and this rate, either by itself or Elphinstone Spi••ning & with rebate or with additional tax at a higher rate, eavrng M,lls Ltd. h h e extra tax Hidayatulloh J. under the second part of the proviso, though called an additional tax, is only the difference between the tax charged at one rate and the ta.x subsequently charge able at another rate. · The function of the proviso is thus to prescribe varying rates for varying circum stances, and it deals with rate or rates, first and last, and not with chargeability to tax, which is the subject matter of s. 3 of the Income-tax Act. There are no words here making the excess dividend into income or subjecting it to tax independently of the charge to tax on the total income. We are thus unable to treat the proviso as an independent charging section. In this view of the matter, no useful purpose will be served by referring to those cases noted by this Court in Com missioner of Income-tax v. Calcutta National Bank Ltd. (1 ), where a schedule which went beyond the pur pose for which it was enacted was given effect to. The proviso here was framed to lay down the rates, and has done no more.

It remains to consider two other arguments, which were addressed to us on behalf of the Commissioner. The first pointed out an anomaly that if there was a total income of even one rupee, the proviso could be made applicable according to its terms but not if the income was nil or negative. The Commissioner con tended that such an anomaly should be avoided, and that the proviso should be interpreted in such a way as to take in all the kinds of cases. Our answer to this is much the same as was given by the learned Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. The learned Chief Justice o hserves :

" There seems to be no logic, there seems to be no reason nor principle why a distinction should be made between the cases of two such companies. But if life is not logic, income-tax is much less so, (1) [1959] 37 I.T.R. 171.

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3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT I~EPORTS

967

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and it is clear that we cannot impose tax upon a sub1'ect by implication or because we think that the Commissioner of object of the legislature was a particular object." Income Tax, vVe respectfully agree with the learned Chief Justice Bombay that thoi:gh t~e interpretation we hav.e pla~ed upon Elf·h~;stone the proviso might lead to some anomalies, it IS for the :>pinning & legislature to avoid the anomalies which, according to Weaving Mitts Ltd. us, spring not from our interpretation but from the Hidayatullah J. language employed.

I960

The second argument is that the proviso itself states that the excess dividend shall be deemed to be out of the undistributed profits of one or more years imme diately preceding the previous year, and that the fiction makes the profits take the place of total income for purposes of tax. In our opinion, the fiction cannot be carried further than the purpose for which it has been put in, in the statute. The Income-tax Act creates an assessment year and a corresponding pre vious year. Assessment to tax in any assessment year can only be in respect of the profits of the immediately preceding previous year. All that the fiction does is to bring profits of back years into the immediately preceding previous years, so that the requirements of the Income-tax law may be complied with. As we have already stated, this fiction cannot be carried fur ther than what it is intended for; it cannot be used to make these profits take the place of total income, which did not exist in the previous year and to which the rate is to be applied under the terms of the proviso. We do not accept both the arguments, and agxee with the High Court in the answer given to the first question. As pointed out by the High Court, the second question does not survive, after the first ques tion is answered against the Department.

In the result, the appeal fails, and will be dismissed

with costs.

Appeal dismissed.

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