1954 (11) TMI 51

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....id one for uncertainty and ambiguity?" The assessees, J.K. Charitable Trust, made an application for a refund of tax paid under section 48 read with section 4 of the Indian Income-tax Act. The application was rejected by the Income-tax Officer Oil 27th February, 1950. An appeal against that order was dismissed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner Oil 31st July, 1950, and a further appeal to the Tribunal was dismissed on the 21st January, 1952, on the round that it was not a valid trust, its terms being vague and uncertain. The reason given in the statement of the case for holding that the trust was not valid is that under the terms of the deed very wide powers were given to the trustees who could utilise the income for any religious o....

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...., as it was vague and uncertain and the income was, therefore, not exempt from taxation under section 4(3) of the Act. Mr. Pathak has urged that even if the trust deed had not specified any religious or charitable object but has merely provided that the property was being made a trust and the entire income was to be spent by the trustees for a religious or charitable purpose of a public nature, which they might select, the trust would be good. It is not necessary for us to consider a case where no object of religious or charitable nature is mentioned in the deed. In the deed before us a number of objects are set out, most of which are admittedly religious or charitable, and the trustees are directed to spend the income on those objects, ....

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....ent decision of this Court in Commissioner of Income-tax v. Radhaswami Satsang Sabha [1954] 25 I.T.R. 472. That case supports the view taken by us today. Mr. Jagdish Swarup has relied on certain objections that were raised in the case of Vallabhdas Karsondas Natha v. Commissioner of Income-tax, Bombay [1947] 15 I.T.R. 32. The decision is, however, clearly against him. In that case the deed did not confine the trustees to any object of a religious or charitable nature. It left the discretion in the trustees and by way of illustration the settlors mentioned eight objects, the last of which eight was in these terms: "Such other purposes beneficial to the Hindu community and Indians in general not falling under preceding heads." The....