Judgment

M. H. BEG, J.:- Civil appeals Nos. 2552-2556 of 1969, are directed against a judgment of the Full Bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. The case was certified as fit under Articles 132 and 133 of the Constitution for an appeal to this court. The question involved, as framed in the Andhra Pradesh case is, on the facts and circumstances of the present case are certain lands situated at Begumpet, Lalguda, Jaiguda, Subsimandi, Yerraguda, Zamboorkhana, and vicarabad, "agricultural lands" within the meaning of Section 2 (e) (i) of the Wealth-tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act)?

2. If any of the lands mentioned above are agricultural lands, as defined by the Act, they would be excluded from the definition of "assets" given in Section 2 (e) of the Act, and therefore, exempt from wealth-tax, Section 2 (e) says:

"2 (e) assets includes property of every description, movable or immovable, but does not include,-

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(i) agricultural land and growing crops grass or standing trees on such land;"

3. The words agricultural land occur in entries 86, 87 and 88 of List 1 to 7th Schedule of our Constitution relating to matters on which Parliament may legislate. Entry 86 here says: "Taxes on the capital value of the assets, exclusive of agricultural land, of individuals and companies: taxes on the capital of companies. Entries 87 and 88 deal with Estate duty and duties of succession to property and each of them excludes agricultural land from property on which taxes may be levied by Parliament. Entry 18 of List II giving subjects of exclusively state legislation says:

"Land, that is to say, rights in or over land, land tenures including the relation of landlord and tenant, and the collection of rents, transfer and alienation of agricultural land: land improvement and agricultural loans; colonization."

4. It is thus clear that "agricultural land" is only a species of land. The main question before us is whether is should stand for all land which is capable of being utilised for agricultural purposes or for some land which either is being actually used or has been set apart or prepared for use for agricultural purposes so as to indicate the intention of the owner or occupier of the land to put it to agricultural uses. This raises the further question: What is an agricultural purpose or agriculture?

5. The term "agriculture" was discussed very thoroughly by this Court in Commr. of Income Tax West Bengal, Calcutta v. Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy, (1957) 32 ITR 466 at pp. 472 & 510. This Court said there at pp. 472-473 (of ITR)

"The term agriculture and agricultural purpose not having been defined in the Indian Income-tax Act, we must necessarily fall back upon the general sense in which they have been understood in common parlance, Agriculture in its root sense means ager, a field, and culturae, cultivation, cultivation of a field which of course implies expenditure of human skill and labour upon land. The term has, however, acquired a wider significance and that is to be found in the various dictionary meanings ascribed to it. It may be permissible to look to the dictionary meaning of the term in the absence of any definition thereof in the relevant statutes".

Therefore, this Court, beginning with the decision of Lord Coleridge in R. v. Peters, (1886) 16 QBD 636 at page 641 scanned and discussed various decisions of English and Indian Courts, and the meanings given in various dictionaries of the English language, as well as in the law dictionaries. It then reached the conclusion (at p. 510) (of ITR):

"If the term agriculture is thus understood as comprising within its scope the basic as well as subsequent operations in the process of agriculture and the raising on the land of products which have some utility either for consumption or for trade and commerce, it will be seen that the term agriculture receives a wider interpretation both in regard to its operations as well as the results of the same. Nevertheless there is present all throughout