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Issues:
- Treatment of donations towards corpus as income of the assessee trust - Violation of provisions of section 13(1)(c) and section 11(5) of the Act - Interpretation of section 2(24) regarding voluntary contributions Analysis: 1. The judgment pertains to appeals for the assessment year 1983-84 involving public charitable trusts. The facts were heard together as they were identical, with donations received towards corpus being a key issue. 2. The assessee trust, created by a trust deed, received shares and cash towards corpus. The Income-tax Officer added the entire donation amount to the income of the trust, citing violations of sections 13(1)(c) and 11(5) of the Act. 3. The Income-tax Officer contended that the trust's income could not be exempted under section 11(1) due to the continued deposit of funds with a concern involving a trustee. He also added an amount for the difference in interest rates earned. 4. The CIT (Appeals) upheld the Income-tax Officer's decision, leading to further appeals before the Tribunal. The main issue was whether donations towards corpus should be treated as income of the trust. 5. The Tribunal considered submissions from both parties, highlighting a Gujarat High Court decision regarding donations of shares to charitable trusts. The judgment differentiated between shares and cash donations in terms of fund investment. 6. The Tribunal clarified that the violation of section 13(1)(c) and section 11(5) would impact the trust's exemption under section 11(1) but not its classification as a public charitable trust. 7. The judgment emphasized that donations with specific directions to form part of the corpus should not be treated as income, even if the trust violated certain provisions in a particular year. 8. The Tribunal concluded by deleting the additions made by the Income-tax Officer, ruling that donations towards corpus should not be considered as income of the assessee trust. Additionally, the interest earned by the trust was deemed as its income, irrespective of potential higher rates. 9. Ultimately, the appeals were allowed in favor of the assessee trusts, providing clarity on the treatment of donations and the impact of violations on tax exemptions.
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