Jirayat Land is Cultivable Land: ITAT grants Tax Exemption [Read Order]

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Pune bench has held that the Jirayat land is cultivable land and therefore, can be treated as agricultural land for the purpose of granting exemption under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The assessee transferred “Jirayat land” for development. The department treated the land transferred as barren land.

The Tribunal found that the meaning ascribed to the Jirayat land by the authorities, is not correct.

The Tribunal relied on the commentary by A.K. Gupte on “Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966”, wherein certain classification has been given in this commentary, as per which “Jirayat or Jirait” means ‘land appropriated to or fit for agriculture’.

“The term “Jirayat” has been defined on page 20 of the commentary to mean dry crop land, which means “the cultivation mainly depends upon annual rainfall”. Even otherwise, a Jirayat land is used for seasonal crops like Khariff and Rabi, where cultivation depends upon annual rainfall. In this commentary, it has been mentioned that “land unfit for cultivation” or a barren land is described by the expression “Kharaba”. This discussion shows that the bedrock of the opinion formed by the authorities below, being, the meaning of the term “Jirayat” land as a barren or fallow land, is erroneous. We have examined the English translation of the 7/12 extract of the land transferred by the assessee, which also declares the land in question as “Jirayat land”, which means that it was a cultivable land as against the view of the authorities of the same being a barren or fallow land,” the Tribunal said.

Allowing the contentions of the assessee, the Tribunal said that “There is a reference to the years 2004-05 to 2007-08 in this extract and the name of the cultivator has been given as “Self”. The crop grown has been written as “Jowar crop” in all the four years. These facts amply prove that not only the land was a cultivable land, but “Jowar crop” was also raised by the assessee on it during the year under consideration and immediately preceding three years as well.”