TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1962 (10) TMI 50
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....ngage themselves as Pandas or priests who assist devotees in performing worship and ceremonies especially connected with pilgrimage to the temple of Jagannath at Puri, and for services rendered by them they receive certain emoluments which are called Dakshina or Pranami. It is not disputed that amounts received as Pranami are profits or gains of business or vocation carried on by the assessees and liable to incometax. Besides Pranami the assessees collect from the pilgrims amounts of money known as Annadan under writings executed by the pilgrims. In these appeals the assessees claim that those amounts are not liable to be included in their taxable income, because they are exempt under section 4(3)(i) and (ii) of the Indian Income-tax Act. T....
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....name of the diety Jagannath. The Income-tax Officer held that Annadan received by the assessees was not exempt from liability to tax, for, in his view, there was no valid trust in writing and "there was no authority to enforce the obligation", that the amounts received by the assessees be spent for religious and charitable purposes, that the assessees were not shebaits appointed under a writing and the income sought to be taxed was in the nature of voluntary contributions and was not derived from property held under a trust or other legal obligation. In appeal the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, Cuttack Range, confirmed the order. He held that the assessees as Pandas held a trust fund in their charge every year from which no income was....
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....cause the objects for which Annadan fund was to be expended were not public objects, and the payments made by the pilgrims as Annadan could not be said to be for the benefit of the public or for charity. The Tribunal declined to submit a statement of the case on the question of law alleged to arise out of their order because in their view in disposing of the appeal it was found that "no trust was intended to be created as alleged by the assessees, and that the assessees had not proved that they were under any obligation to devote the income to any particular use." The assessees then moved the High Court for an order under section 66(2) of the Indian Income-tax Act calling upon the Tribunal to state the case. The High court directed the T....
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....ses shall not be included in the total income of the person receiving them : (i) Subject to the provisions of clause (c) of sub-section (i) of section 16, any income derived from property held under a trust or other legal obligation solely for religious or charitable purposes, where such purposes relate to anything done within the taxable territories, and in the case of property so held in part only for such purposes, the income applied or finally set apart for application thereto. (ii) Any income of a religious or charitable institution derived from voluntary contributions and applicable solely to religious or charitable purposes." It is manifest on a bare perusal of the two clauses that income of the assessees would be admissible....
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....ining facts rests with the Tribunal and, on the facts found, the High Court has to advice the Tribunal as to the law applicable. The Tribunal having found that the receipts were in the nature of income of a business, and no trust was ever intended by the pilgrims who gave Annadan the High Court had to record its opinion on the basis of those facts. A finding of fact recorded by the Tribunal may not be regarded as final if it is not supported by any evidence, or is founded upon a view of facts which cannot reasonably be entertained, or upon a misconception : vide Edwards v. Bairstow [1953] 28 I.T.R. 579; (1955) 36 Tax, Cas.207. The High Court made an order under section 66(2) because in their opinion the consideration whether the pilgrims un....
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....tended or created by the pilgrims. On that finding no question as to the applicability of section 4(3)(i) in any event could arise. It was open to the assessees to demand that a question that the finding was based on no evidence or that it could not reasonably be arrived at by any person acting judicially and properly instructed as to the relevant law. Some vague statement was made in the application to the High Court for an order for calling of a statement of the case that the finding was based on no evidence, but the High Court was not asked to call upon the Tribunal by an order under section 66(2) to submit a statement on the question that the finding that there was no trust was based on no evidence. On the question referred the High Cou....