Trust property vested in trustees: agricultural income-tax applied under the provision for partial beneficial holding, not common management.

A trust deed that transfers property to trustees and directs income for the trustees and other beneficiaries vests the property in the trustees. On that construction, the agricultural income-tax provision for a person holding land partly for his own benefit and partly for beneficiaries applied, not the provision confined to common managers, receivers, administrators, or similar persons holding on behalf of jointly interested owners. The assessment was therefore made under section 12 of the Assam Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1939, rather than section 13, and the referred question was answered against the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the managing trustee's assessment for agricultural income-tax on trust properties was governed by section 12 or section 13 of the Assam Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1939.

Analysis: The deed, read as a whole, disclosed an intention to create a trust by transferring the properties to trustees and directing the income to be applied for the trustees and other beneficiaries. The property therefore vested in the trustees. Section 13 applied only to a common manager, receiver, administrator, or the like holding land on behalf of persons jointly interested, and did not cover trustees holding the land partly for themselves and partly for beneficiaries. The case accordingly fell within section 12(1), which governs a person holding land partly for his own benefit and partly for the benefit of beneficiaries.

Conclusion: The assessment was correctly made under section 12 and not under section 13; the answer to the referred question was in the negative, against the assessee and in favour of the Revenue.

Final Conclusion: The appeals were dismissed because the trust properties vested in the trustees and the managing trustee was assessable under the provision applicable to partial beneficial holding rather than under the provision dealing with common managers and similar persons.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a deed transfers property to trustees and the trustees hold it partly for themselves and partly for other beneficiaries, the assessment provision governing partial beneficial holding applies, not the provision limited to common managers, receivers, administrators, or similar persons holding on behalf of persons jointly interested.

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