of all the parts of the undertaking mentioned therein, the sum total also cannot obviously be a just equivalent of the undertaking. So too, if some of them do not provide for a just equivalent and others do so, the sum total cannot equally be a just equivalent to the undertaking. In the case of the undertaking in question, the machinery is the· most valuable part of the undertaking. Apropos the unused machinery in good condition, how can the price for which the said machinery was purchased years ago ·possibly represent its price at the time of its acquisition? A simple illustration will disclose the irrelevance of the principle. Suppose in 1950 a machinery was purchased for Rs. 100 and, for some reasons, the same has not been used in the working of the undertaking but has been 'llaintained in good condition. That machinery has not become obsolescent and stm can be used effectively. If purchased in· open market it will cost the owner Rs. 1,000. A compensation of Rs. 100 for that machinery cannot be said to be a just equivalent of it. It is common knowledge that there has been an upward spiral in prices of the machinery in recent years. The cost price of a machinery. purchased about ten years ago is a consideration not relevant for fixing compensation for its acquisition in 1965. The principle must be such as to enable the ascertainment of its price at or about the time of its acquisition. Nor the doctrine of written-down value accepted in the Income-tax law can afford any guide for ascertaining the compensation for the used machinery acquired under the Act. Under the general scheme of the Income-tax Act, the income is to be charged regardless of the diminution in the value of the capital. But the rigour of this hard principle is mitigated by the Act granting allowances in respect of depreciation in the value of certain assets such as machinery, buildings, plant, furniture etc. These allowances are worked out on a notional basis for giving relief to the income-tax assessee. This artificial rule of depreciation evolved for income-tax purposes has no relation to the value of the said assets. To illustrate: a machinery was purchased in the year 1950 for Rs. 1,000. The aggregate of all the depreciation allowances made year after year for ten years may exhaust the sum of Rs. 1,000 with the result, after the tenth year, the assessee will not be entitled to any depreciation. From this it cannot be said that after the tenth year the machinery has no value. Indeed, a machinery purchased for Rs, 1,000 in 1950, because of subsequent rise in prices may be sold in 1_965 for Rs. 10,000. But the application of the principle laid down in cl. (b) of para II of the Schedule to the Act m regard to used machinery gives the owner no compensation at all. Yet, the Government takes the machinery worth Rs. 10,000 gratis. This illustration exposes the extreme arbitrariness of the principle. It is, therefore, manifest that the two principles of valuation embodied in cl. (b) of para II of the Schedule to the '.Act are not relevant to the fixing of compensation for the machinery at. the time of its acquisition under the Act. The argument of the
