Privy Council Court April 1937 Judgments

Commissioner of Income-tax, Bombay Presidency and Aden Vs. A.P. Swamy ...

Court: Privy Council

LORD MACMILLAN: Since the order pronounced by the High Court in the present case on 28th March 1935, this Board has had occasion to consider the interpretation of the words "Hindu undivided family" as employed in S. 55, Income-tax Act, in the case of Kalyanji Vithaldas v. Commissioner of Income-tax, Bengal, in which the judgment of their Lordships was delivered on 30th November 1936 (64 IA 28 (1) ). In that case the meaning of those words in the section in question, where they are used in connexion with liability to super-tax, was very fully examined in the judgment which Sir George Rankin prepared on behalf of the Board, and a conclusion was reached contrary to the view which the High Court has adopted in the present case. Mr. DeGruyther has sought to show that the principle of that decision does not apply to the facts of the case now before the Board. Their Lordships have listened attentively to Mr. DeGruyther's observations; but they are not satisfied that the facts of the present c...

Secretary of State Vs. Sri Raja Sobhanadri Appa Rao Bahadur Zamindar G ...

Court: Privy Council

SIR JOHN WALLIS: The main question in all these consolidated appeals from judgments of the Madras High Court is whether the plaintiffs who are zamindars of permanently settled estates are entitled to resume the suit lands which had been held by village karnams or accountants as part of their remuneration and had been enfranchised by the Government under S.17, Madras Proprietary Estates Village Service Act 2 of 1894. From the earliest times, as stated at p.84 of the Fifth Report, village officers and servants have received, together with other emoluments, grants of land wholly or partially exempted by Government from the payment of land revenue in lieu of wages for their services. In 1894 the Madras Government, having decided to substitute a system of payment by salaries, provided by Legislation for the imposition of cesses to meet these salaries; and at the same time took power under S. 17 to enfranchise these inams in permanently settled estates, as hereinafter explained. In 1922 the ...

Rokkam Lakshmi Reddi and Another Vs. Rokkam Venkata Reddi and Others

Court: Privy Council

SIR GEORGE RANKIN: On this appeal the question for decision is whether the plaintiffs have shown that they are the nearest reversioners of one Rokkam Nagi Reddi, a Hindu governed by the Mitakshara. The year of his death is not precisely ascertained but that he died "about 1898" or "about 1900" is not in dispute. The succession to his estate opened on the death of his widow Chinnamma in 1935. The word "Rokkam" is a "house name" or "family name" but witnesses on both sides agree that there are in the same village several families using this "house name" who are not related to one another. The addition of the word "Reddi"-used in certain families, including the family now in question, as a name-does not make it distinctive of any single family. The caste of Rokkam Nagi Reddi was kapu (agriculturist). The appellants (defendants 2 and 3) not only deny the alleged relationship between Nagi Reddi and the plaintiffs: they claim to be themselves his nearest reversioners. The trial Judge accepte...

Jupiter General Insurance Co., Ltd. Vs. Ardeshir Bomanji Shroff

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1937PC223

LORD MAUGHAM: This is an appeal from a judgment and decree of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in its appellate jurisdiction, dated 19th March 1935. The judgment allowed in part the respondent's appeal from the decree of Davar, J. dated 23rd August 1934, and swarded him the sum of Rs.17,000 as damages for wrongful dismissal from the service of the appellant company. Various questions were argued in the Courts below; but the only question with which their Lordships find it necessary to deal is whether, assuming that upon the true construction of the contract of service between the parties, the respondent's employment was not terminable on one month's notice, the appellants were entitled summarily to dismiss the respondent from their service. In the view their Lordships take of the appeal it is unnecessary to express an opinion upon the true construction of the contract of service, or on the question as to the proper measure of damages, if any were recoverable. The appellants carry...

international Railway Company Vs. Niagara Parks Commission

Court: Privy Council

LORD MACMILLAN: The main question to be determined in this appeal relates to the basis on which the appellants are entitled to be compensated on the transfer to the respondents of an electric railway constructed by the appellants on the Canadian Bank of the Niagara River. There are also subsidiary questions (1) as to whether certain items of property should be included in computing the compensation, (2) as to the allowance of interest, and (3) as to costs. The respondents, the Niagara Parks Commission, formerly known as the Commissioners for the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park, are a statutory body which controls for the Government of Ontario a large area of land on the bank of the Niagara River above and below the Falls which has been developed as a public park under Statutes of 1885 (48 Vict. C. 21) and 1887 (50 Vict.C.13). The appellants are the successors of the Niagara Falls Park and River Railway Company which was incorporated in 1892 by a statute of the Ontario Legislature (55...

CaptaIn W.F. Wake-walker, O.B.E., R.N. Vs. Steamer ColIn W. Ltd. and O ...

Court: Privy Council

VISCOUNT SANKEY: In the early morning of 13th August 1934, H. M. S. "Dragon" with a pilot on board was proceeding up the St. Lawrence inbound from Quebec. The "Dragon" is a twin screw cruiser, 470 feet long, 41 feet in beam, and was drawing about 16J feet. Her shaft horse-power is about 40,000 and her cruising speed is 12 knots (105 to 107 revolutions) and her full speed is 27 knots. She intended to berth at the cross-wall at the inner end of the Market Basin, Montreal, which is situated on the north side of the river, and she had received a letter from the harbour authorities stating that the berth would be ready for her at 9 o'clock, with a tug in attendance to berth her, if required. At a short distance before reaching the Jacques Cartier bridge over the river at the entrance to the harbour she altered her course to port, and passed underneath the middle of the bridge about 8.37 a.m. As soon as she got clear of the bridge her look-out would have a full view of the Basin, but shortly...

Indian Radio and Cable Communications Co., Ltd. Vs. Commissioner of In ...

Court: Privy Council

LORD MAUGHAM: This is an appeal from a judgment and order of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, dated 28th March 1935, whereby the High Court, upon the hearing of a case referred to it by the respondent under the provisions of S. 66 (2), Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922) (referred to below as 'the Act,') answered the question of law raised thereby adversely to the contention of the appellant company. The question of law referred to the High Court arose in the course of the assessment of the income of the appellant company chargeable with income-tax and super-tax for the year of assessment ending on 31st March 1934, and was as follows: Whether the half share of the net profits, payable by the Assessee company (meaning the appellant company) under Cl. 5 of the Agreement dated the 19th day of February 1932, viz., Rs. 3,35,861 is a proper deduction to be allowed for the purposes of arriving at the amount on which this company should be assessed for the purposes of income-tax and super...

Sri Iswari Bhubaneshwari Thakurani Vs. Brojo Nath Dey and Others

Court: Privy Council

LORD MACMILLAN: On 5th May 1888, Rakhal Chandra Dey, since deceased, and his brother Brojo Nath Dey, respondent 1, executed a deed of dedication of certain properties in the environs of Calcutta in favour of a female domestic Hindu deity, who by her shebait Mohini Dey is the present appellant. On 5th April 1896, the same two brothers as individuals by deed of sale sold and conveyed to themselves as shebaits of the deity certain land in the district of Hooghly. The main question in the appeal relates to the efficacy of the deed of dedication of 1888. Before proceeding to deal with this question it is desirable to narrate certain events which intervened between the granting of the deed in 1888 and the raising of the present action. Rakhal Chandra Dey, one of the granters of the deed, died in 1901 leaving two sons, Pulin and his half-brother Satya, the latter then an infant. In 1904, in a suit brought by Satya, by his mother as his next friend, against his uncle Brojo Nath Dey and others,...