The Commissioner of Income-tax, Madhya Pradesh & Bhopal, Nagpur v. Bhopal Textiles LTD., Bhopal.

& Bhopal, Nagpur 1 v. 1960 .. October 17. The Judgment of the Court Bhopal Toxliles was delivered by ' Ltd .• Bhopal •. H J Th" I "th . ] 1 IDAYATULLAH .- IS a ppea ' WI ipecia.. ea. ve, Hidayatullah r. ha.s been filed against the judgment of the Nagpur 1 • High Court in a reference under s. 66(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, by which the High Court answered t.he following question in the negative : "Whether the proportionate profits on the goods of the value of Rs. 4,10,785 were received or were deemed to be received in British India, in the year of account, hy or on behalf of the a.ssessee Company within the meaning of Section 4(l)(a.) of the Indian Inco111e-tax Act, 1922 ". The Commissioner of Income-tax, Madhya. Pradesh a.nd Bhopal is the appellant, and the Bhopal Textiles Ltd., Bhopal, is the respondent. For the assessment year 1944-45, the Company which wa.s non-resident was treated as ' resident a.nd ordinarily resident' under s. 4(l)(c) of the Income-tax Aot. In the year of account, it had supplied its manufactured articles either to the Government of India. or its nominees a.t Agra, Alla.ha.bad and Delhi. Under the orders of the Government, the goods were sent direct to the persons nominated, who ma.de the payment against the goods. The goods were a.II sent f.o.r. Bhopal, a.nd the re.ii wa.y freight and other charges were to be borne by the buyers to whom the railway receipts made out in the name of the consignees were sent by the Company through the Imperial Bank a.t Bhopal. The Bhopal Bra.nob sent the railway receipts to branches of the Bank a.t Agra., Alla.haba.d and Delhi, which collected the a.mounts due from the buyers, and transmitted them to the Im peria.l Bank, Bhopal, to the credit of the Company. On these facts, a. total sum of Rs. 4,40,373 was held by the Department to have been received in British India.. Of that sum, an amount of Rs. 29,588 which represented the receipts \ i 2 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 11 for supplies direct to Government is no longer in dis- r9 6o pute. The ha.la.nee represents the sum, which was the Th c .. • E: e ommissioner sub1ect-ma.tter of the reierence. of Income-tax, The usual appeals followed, and the contention of Madhya Pradesh the Company that the money was not received in & Bhopal, Nagpur British India was not accepted by the Tribunal. The . v. . Tribunal did not decide a.bout the place of accrual. A Bhopal Textiles reference was then made by the Tribunal of the ques- Ltd., Bhopal tion quoted above. The High Court in deciding the Hidayatullah J. reference went into the question of passing of pro- perty under the Indian Sa.le of Goods Act, 1930, and ca.me to the conclusion that since the property in the goods had passed to the buyers, the Imperial Bank of India, Bhopal, must be" deemed to have received the railway receipts a.s . agents of the buyers". Continuing the reason, the learned Judges observed: "So also the branches of the Bank at Agra., Alla.­ ha.bad and Delhi acted as the a.gents of the buyers when they collected the money from them and trans­ mitted it to the Bhopal branch. In this view, the profits cannot be said to be received by the assessee Company in British India.. It received the money only when it reached the Bhopal branch as a credit to its own account and that was not in British India at the material time". The case was not decided by the Tribunal on the basis of accrual of the income, profits or gains to the Company. It was decided on the fact of actual receipt, whether it was in British India or in Bhopal, which was then outside the taxable territories. We need not, therefore, concern ourselves with the prob­ lem whether property in the goods could be said to have passed absolutely to the buyers without any right of disposal being reserved by the Company. It is a matter of some doubt whether the goods were absolutely at the disposal of the buyers after the rail­ way receipts were handed over to the Bank. It is in evidence-and has been adverted to by the Income. tax Officer-that the Company, when it handed over the railway receipt to the Imperial Bank at Bhopal, did so along with a covering letter in which it asked the Bank to deliver the railway receipt and the bill to r960 the buyers against payment of the bill amount plus -. . collection charges. In this view of the matter, though The Commimonu we do not express any final opinion, we doubt whe- of Income-tox, . • 1 d · h b h Madhya Pradesh ther the right of d1sposa was parte wit y t e &'Bhopal, Nagpur Company. . I v. A railway receipt is a document of title to goods, Bhopal Textiles and, for all purposes, represents the goods. When : Lid., Bhopal the railway receipt is handed over to the consignee on Hidayatullah J. payment, the property in the goods is transferred. In this case, it is a matter of considerable doubt whether the property in the goods can be said to have passed to the buyers by the mere fact of the railway receipts being in the name of the consignees, as has been held by the High Court. Since we are not deciding the question of accrual, we do not elaborate the point. Coming now to the question as to where the amount was received, we have no doubt that the view of the Tribunal was correct. This income was received at Agra, Allahabad or Delhi from the buyers by the Im­ perial Bank acting as the agent of the Company. The Company had handed over the railway receipts to the Bank, and asked the Bank not to hand over the rail­ way receipts to the buyers, unless payment was receiv­ ed. This w&s sufficient to make the Bank an agent of the Company. The buyers could not have counterman­ ded the instructions given by the Company to the Bank, which they would, indubitably, have been able to do, if the Bank was their agent. This was laid down by this Court in The Commissioner of Income-tax v. P. M. Rathod and Company('). Mr. Veda VyaE1a con­ tends that the case is distinguishable on the ground that the railway receipts 'there were "to self'', whereas here the railway receipts, were made out in the name of the consignee. Nothing turns upon this distinction. The document of title to goods was still the property of the Company till payment for it was received and it was handed over. In this view of the matter, ~e a.re of opinion that the ruling in question a.pp­ hes. Mr. Veda Vyasa finally contended that the agree­ ment between the parties was that the goods were to (l) [1960] 1 S.C.R. 401. ! II I 2 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 13 ~ be sent f.o.r. Bhopal, and that the price was also to be z96o paid there. He contended that the handing over of Th c .. "l · h B k Bh l . e omnuss1oner the ra1 way receipts to t e an at opa was m of Income-ta., furtherance of the agreement, that the money was Madhya Prade~h ultimately obtained by the Bank and handed over at & Bhopal, Nagpur Bhopal also; and that, thus, the money must be deem- v. ed to have been received there. This, in our opinion, Bhopal Te.,tiles does not truly represent the character of the transac- Lid .• Bhopal tion. No doubt, under the agreement, payment was Hidayatullah J. tq'be made at Bhopal; but the circumstances show that that was departed from, and the ordinary mer- c~ntile practice of handing over the railway receipts ' to one's own bankers with a request to hand over the receipts against payment to the buyers was followed. T·he Bank, as we have shown above, was thus the agent of the sellers, as was laid down in the ruling of this Court, and ·the fact of payment to the agent determines the place where the money can be said to be received by the Company. That place was at Agra, Allahabad or Delhi. In this view, the income, profits or gains must be deemed .to have been received in the taxable territories, and the answer to the ~ question ought to have been in the affirmative. We accordingly allow the appeal, and answer the question in the affirmative. The 'appellant will be entitled to his costs here and in the High Court. Appeal allowed.