law: Preference Shares (Regulation of Dividends) Act, 1960
  4. Special provisions in relation to companies where a
  
  portion of their income is not chargeable to income-tax
  Where any preference share of a company has been issued and
  
  subscribed for before the lst April, 1960, and any portion of the profits and
  
  gains of the company in respect of the relevant period is exempt from
  
  income-tax under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), by reason of such
  
  portion being agricultural income, then, for the purpose of the increase in the
  
  dividend in relation to any such preference share under the provisions of
  
  section 3, the increase of thirty per cent, or eleven per cent referred to
  
  therein shall be taken to be such proportion of the said thirty per cent or
  
  eleven per cent, as the case may be, as the total amount of the profits and
  
  gains of the company excluding the portion of the profits and gains which is so
  
  exempt in respect of the relevant period bears to the total amount of the
  
  profits and gains thereof in respect of that period.
  Explanation:  For the purposes of this section,
  
  "relevant period", in relation to the profits and gains of a company,
  
  shall mean—
  (a) the previous years relevant to such of the three assessment
  
  years as immediately precede the assessment year ending on the 31st March,
  
  1961, and in each of which the net result of the computation of profits and
  
  gains of the company has not been a loss or where there are only two such
  
  years, such two years, or where there is only one such year, such one year; or
  (b) in any case where clause (a) is not applicable the previous
  
  year relevant to the assessment year ending on the 31st March, 1961, or a
  
  subsequent assessment year immediately following thereafter in which the net
  
  result of the computation of profits and gains has not been a loss.