JUDGMENT - 1. This Reference raises a question of some importance and the income under assessment relates to managing agency commission. It is a trite saying that income-tax is not and cannot be cast on logical lines. No considerations of equity or hardship can be permitted to control the application of the Act. Nor is it permissible to the Court to disregard any axiomatic principle of tax law. One such principle expressed in the laconic style of Lord Macnaghten is that income-tax is a tax on income -- an expression of wide connofation and elaslic ambit. Another principle -- one of computation which also may bo regarded as axiomatic -- is that in assessing the yearly profits and gains of a business for the purpose of the Income-tax Act, each year is a self-con-tained period. We have said all this at the very outset, because we have been very strongly reminded by Mr. G. N. Joshi, .learned Counsel for the Revenue, that we are bound to act in conformity with this principle of compulation. We agree that it is incumbent on the Court to see that there is no departure on its part from any fundamental concept or principle of tax law. There is nothing, however in these axiomatic rules or an

Click Here to Read the rest of this document