1989 (8) TMI 42

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....r. The two idols were installed by Baikuntha Gupta, a tea estate holder called Star Tea Estate in Sylhet town in Sylhet district of undivided Bengal in pre-partition days. Baikuntha Gupta, by a gift deed executed on July 2, 1915, endowed Rs. 2,90,000 and appointed Messrs. B. C. Gupta and Sons, the manager of the Star Tea Estate as trustee of the two idols. After the partition of India, Sylhet b....

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....o entities. The cosmos and nature are philosophical viewpoints propounded by Kapila Mahamuni in the Samkhya School of thought. The instant reference is under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957. The Wealth-tax Officer, for the assessment year 1964-65, assessed the two idols as one unit. Thereupon, the Commissioner of Wealth-tax, on February 7, 1975, set aside the orders and directed the idols to be assess....

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....nswered in the affirmative. The second question is whether the decision of the Tribunal that deities are not individuals and section 3 does not apply in the case of deity and, therefore, the Wealth-tax Act does not apply to a deity, is not untenable in law ? There was an overdrawn controversy under the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, whether an idol is a person and also an individual. The contr....