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TMI Blog1969 (2) TMI 9X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... house at 74/75 Baliaghata Main Road. He appointed his two adopted sons, Hem Chandra Naskar (since deceased) and Yogendra Nath Naskar as the shebaits. Elaborate provision was made as to the manner in which the income from the property was to be spent. For a long time the income from the property was assessed in the hands of the shebaits as trustees. In respect of the assessment years 1950-51 and 1951-52, the two shebaits contended that there was no trust executed in the case and as such the income from the property did not attract liability to tax and particularly the assessments made in the name of Hem Chandra Naskar and his brother, Yogendra Nath Naskar, as trustees of the debuttar estate could not be sustained. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner accepted this contention on appeal and set aside the assessments. Finding that the assessments have been set aside on the footing that the status of the assessee had not been correctly determined, the Income-tax Officer initiated proceedings for the assessment years 1952-53 and 1953-54 against Hem Chandra Naskar and Yogendra Nath Naskar, the shebaits of the two deities and completed the assessments on the deities in the status of an ind ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n the parties: Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the assessments on the deities through the shebaits were in accordance with law ? The main question hence presented for determination in these appeals is whether a Hindu deity can be treated as a unit of assessment under sections 3 and 4 of the Income-tax Act, 1922. It is well established by high authorities that a Hindu idol is a juristic person in whom the dedicated property vests. In Manohar Ganesh v. Lakhmiram, called the Dakhor temple case, West and Birdwood JJ. state: The Hindu law, like the Roman law and those derived from it, recognises, not only corporate bodies with rights of property vested in the corporation apart from its individual members, but also the juridical persons or subjects called foundations. A Hindu, who wishes to establish a religious or charitable institution, may, according to his law, express his purpose and endow it, and the rule will give effect to the bounty, or at least protect it so far, at any rate, as it is consistent with his own dharma or conceptions of morality. A trust is not required for this purpose; the necessity of a trust in such a case is indeed a p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e as the manager of an infant heir'--words which seem to be almost an echo of what was said in relation to a church in a judgment of the days of Edward I: 'A church is always under age and is to be treated as an infant and it is not according to law that infants should be disinherited by the negligence of their guardians or be barred of an action in case they would complain of things wrongfully done by their guardians while they are under age' (Pollock and Maitland's History of English Law, volume I, 483)...... In Pramatha Nath Mullick v. Pradyumma Kumar Mullick Lord Shaw observed: A Hindu idol is, according to long established authority, founded upon the religious customs of the Hindus, and the recognition thereof by courts of law, a 'juristic entity'. It has a juridical status with the power of suing and being sued. Its interests are attended to by the person who has the deity in his charge and who is in law its manager with all the powers which would, in such circumstances, on analogy, be given to the manager of the estate of an infant heir. It is unnecessary to quote the authorities; for this doctrine, thus simply stated, is firmly established. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l object which represents or symbolises a particular purpose can be given the status of a legal person, and regarded as owner of the property which is dedicated to it. The legal position is comparable in many respects to the development in Roman law. So far as charitable endowment is concerned Roman law as later developed recognised two kinds of juristic persons. One was a corporation or aggregate of persons which owned its juristic personality to State sanction. A private person might make over property by way of gift or legacy to a corporation already in existence and might at the same time prescribe the particular purpose for which the property was to be employed, e.g., feeding the poor, or giving relief to the poor or distressed. The recipient corporation would be in a position of a trustee and would be legally bound to spend the funds for the particular purpose. The other alternative was for the donor to create an institution or foundation himself. This would be a new juristic person which depended for its origin upon nothing else but the will of the founder provided it was directed to a charitable purpose. The foundation would be the owner of the dedicated property in the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to worship the Supreme Spirit and nothing else. They have spoken of Him, as Agni, Mitra, Varuna, Indra; the one Existence the sages speak of in many ways. The Bhagavad Gita echoes this verse when it says: (Thou art Vayu and Yama, Agni, Varuna and Moon; Lord of creation art Thou, and Grandsire). Samkara, the great philosopher, refers to the one Reality, who, owing to the diversity of intellects (matibheda) is conventionally spoken of (parikalpya) in various ways as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesvara. It is however possible that the founder of the endowment or the worshipper may not conceive on this highest spiritual plane but hold that the idol is the very embodiment of a personal God, but that is not a matter with which the law is concerned. Neither God nor any supernatural being could be a person in law. But so far as the deity stands as the representative and symbol of the particular purpose which is indicated by the donor, it can figure as a legal person. The true legal view is that in that capacity alone the dedicated property vests in it. There is no principle why a deity as such a legal person should not be taxed if such a legal person is allowed in law to own property, even ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... those rates shall be charged for that year in accordance with, and subject to the provisions of, this Act in respect of the total income of the previous year of every individual, Hindu undivided family, company and local authority, and of every firm and other association of persons or the partners of the firm or the members of the association individually. On a comparison of the provisions of the two Acts counsel on behalf of the appellant contended that a restricted meaning should be given to the word individual in section 3 of the earlier Act. We see no justification for this argument. On the other hand, we are of the opinion that the language employed in the 1961 Act may be relied upon as a parliamentary exposition of the earlier Act even on the assumption that the language employed in section 3 of the earlier Act is ambiguous. It is clear that the word individual in section 3 of the 1922 Act includes within its connotation all artificial juridical persons and this legal position is made explicit and beyond challenge in the 1961 Act. In Cape Brandy Syndicate v. Inland Revenue Commissioners, Lord Sterndale M. R. said: I think it is clearly established in Attorney-Gen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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