Social welfare work can qualify as an occupation for tax exemption when carried on continuously and regularly without profit motive.

Section 5(a) of the Expenditure-tax Act exempts expenditure incurred wholly and exclusively for a business, profession, vocation or occupation, and an activity may still qualify as an occupation without any profit-making motive. An occupation is wider than a vocation and includes work that occupies time and attention with continuity or regularity, rather than a casual or isolated pursuit. On the stated facts, the assessee's wife was continuously engaged with several social welfare institutions through social and constructive work, so that activity was treated as an occupation and the related expenditure was eligible for exemption.

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Issues: Whether the assessee's wife's social and constructive work amounted to an occupation within the meaning of section 5(a) of the Expenditure-tax Act, 1957, so as to exempt the expenditure incurred for attending meetings of social welfare institutions.

Analysis: Section 5(a) exempts expenditure incurred wholly and exclusively for the purpose of a business, profession, vocation or occupation carried on by the assessee. The absence of a profit-making motive does not prevent an activity from being a vocation or occupation. The expression "occupation" is of wider import than "vocation" and covers an activity which occupies time and attention and is carried on with some continuity or regularity, and is not merely momentary, isolated, or a casual pursuit. The findings showed that the assessee's wife was associated in various capacities with numerous social welfare institutions and was devoting her time and attention continuously to social and constructive work.

Conclusion: The activity was an occupation within section 5(a), and the Tribunal was justified in allowing the exemption.

Ratio Decidendi: An activity may constitute an occupation for the purpose of section 5(a) even without a profit-making motive, if it is a continuous and regular pursuit that occupies a person's time and attention.

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