HON’BLE SUPREME COURT · SOURCE-REVIEWED NOTE
United Commercial Bank Ltd., Calcutta v. Commissioner of Income-tax, West Bengal
Civil Appeal 161 of 1954
[1958] SCR 79 ·
Indian Income-tax Act 1922, sections 6, 8, 10 and 24(2)
Sources & disclosures includedDownload original judgment / order
3-judge bench · N. H. Bhagwati · T. L. Venkatarama Ayyar · J. L. Kapur
Assessment years: 1945–46
01 · Facts of the case
A bank sought to set off a prior-year business loss of Rs. 3,21,929 against current securities interest. Authorities treated interest under section 8 separately from business profits under section 10 and refused carry-forward set-off.
Source: Primary report: SCR 80–83
02 · Discussion by the Hon’ble Court
The statutory computation heads were mutually exclusive: securities interest remained under section 8 even if securities were trading assets. However, the broadly framed reference permitted the alternative argument that such interest arose from the same banking business for section 24(2).
Source: Primary report: SCR 87–99
03 · Judicial decision
Appeal allowed and reference remitted for a fuller Tribunal statement on whether securities were trading assets of the banking business, followed by fresh High Court decision. Costs of appeal to be costs in the reference.
Source: Primary report: SCR 100
04 · Outcome / in whose favour
Assessee obtained remand only. The Court upheld the section 8 classification but expressly did not decide the competing section 24(2) arguments without the missing factual finding.
Source: Primary report: SCR 97–100
05 · AKHB REVIEW POINT
Distinguish head of income from underlying business identity and do not portray this judgment as final allowance of loss set-off. Establish the actual trading-asset finding and statutory version applicable.
Source: Primary report: SCR 98–100
Source & verification
Download original judgment / order · Open cited source rendition
Complete 22-page Supreme Court Reports scan. Any adjoining report fragments remain in the unchanged original and are excluded from this analysis.
Statutory scope
Historical legislation expressly identified in this note. This is not a decision under the Income-tax Act, 1961 or the Income-tax Act, 2025. Verify enacted wording, commencement, transition and subsequent judicial treatment independently before modern reliance.
Later treatment
Source checked 2026-10-23. Subsequent treatment and present-law applicability have not been comprehensively checked.
Page references identify the supplied PDF; paragraph references identify the judgment unless stated otherwise.
AI disclosure & professional disclaimer
This AKHB research note uses AI assistance and a preserved full-primary review, with refreshed exact original-byte verification. Independent human review is not represented.
General legal and tax research only; not legal or tax advice. Verify the complete judgment, applicable statutory version and subsequent treatment before reliance. AKHB REVIEW POINT is editorial analysis, not the Court’s holding.