9911796707
TMI Blog1985 (9) TMI 2X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to the assessment years 1960-61 and 1961-62. The assessee's accounting year was the calendar year. The assessee publishes a Malayalam daily newspaper by name Kerala Dhwani. Till 1953, he was a lecturer in History and Political Science in a College at Kottayam. He had his education in the United States of America during 1953 to 1957. During this period of stay in the U.S.A. he had the privilege of associating himself with the India Gospel Mission in the United States. The India Gospel Mission, it was stated, was collecting money for its working abroad through the Indian Christian Crusade. The assessee was also publishing a religious magazine called " Viswa Deepam ". The magazine was started in January, 1957. The father of the assessee, Shri K. G. Thomas, was the editor of Viswa Deepam. Shri Thomas was also in America and he was also doing missionary work in America for some time. In 1958, Shri Thomas, the father of the assessee, was in India. He was going to America off and on. Indian Christian Crusade, U.S.A., is an institution sponsoring religious education in India and it was admitted that the assessee was propagating the ideals of the Indian Christian Crusade on returning to In ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ents by way of remuneration for the work done by the assessee in connection with the spreading, in India, of the ideals of the Indian Christian Crusade, U.S.A. The Income-tax Officer came to the conclusion that the amounts paid to the assessee were connected with the business of the assessee and were liable to be taxed as the business income of the assessee. He, therefore, brought to tax Rs. 2,90,220 which had been received during the assessment year. For the next assessment year, the assessee had received similar amounts totalling to Rs. 3,63,750 through the Indian Christian Crusade, U.S.A. For the reasons given in the order of the previous year, the Income-tax Officer treated this amount also as the business income for the assessment year 1961-62 and brought the same to tax. The assessee filed appeals in respect of both the years and the Appellate Assistant Commissioner disposed of the appeals by different orders passed on the same date. He discussed all the contentions raised by the assessee in his appellate orders. The main contention raised by the assessee before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner was that the various amounts credited in his bank account and in his persona ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... its object should be to earn a livelihood. Anything in which a person was engaged systematically could be an occupation or vocation. The next question would be whether receipts could be said to arise from such occupation or vocation. There was link between the activity of the assessee and the payments and the payments were made by those who held similar views as those of the assessee and who were very much interested in the propagation and the acceptance of those views by the general public. The payments were made for the purpose: of helping the assessee to run the paper which was the mouth-piece or medium through which the ideas were to be spread. The connection between the activity of the assessee and the donations was thus intimate. It arose out of the vocation or the occupation carried on by the assessee. Therefore, the receipts arose from the exercise of an occupation by the assessee. The High Court also considered whether such payments were excluded by section 4(3)(vii) of the Act. Section 4 of the Act made the total income of the previous year of any person assessable to tax and sub-section (3) specified certain incomes which should not be included in the total income of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... placed the burden of proof upon the assessee. But on the facts and in the circumstances of this case, the conclusion recorded by the High Court in the instant case was borne out from the facts on record. The observations of this court referred to above cannot be of much assistance to the assessee. The case which is most apposite to the facts of the instant case is decision of this court in the case of Krishna Menon v. CIT [1959] 35 ITR 48. There, after retirement from Government service, the appellant therein was spending his time in studying and teaching Vedanta philosophy. L, who was one of his disciples, used to come from London at regular intervals to Trivandrum where the appellant resided and stay there for a few months at a time and attend his discourses, and so received instructions in Vedanta and had the benefit of his teachings. L transferred his entire balance standing to his credit in his own account at Bombay, amounting to more than Rs. 2 lakhs, to the account of the appellant opened in the latter's name in the same bank at Bombay. Thereafter, from time to time, L put in further sums into the appellant's account in Bombay. The question was whether the receipts from L ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as also placed on the decisions of the Gujarat High Court in the case of Acharya D. V. Pande v. CIT [1965] 56 ITR 152 and CIT v. Shri Girdharram Hariram Bhagat [1985] 154 ITR 10, decisions of the Bombay High Court in the case of Maharaj Shri Govindlalji Ranchhodlalji v. CIT [1958] 34 ITR 92 and H. H. Maharani Shri Vijaykuverba Saheb of Morvi v. CIT [1963] 49 ITR 594, decision of the Madras High Court in the case of S. A. Ramakrishnan v. CIT [1978] 114 ITR 253 and decision of the Delhi High Court in the case of Siddhartha Publications (P.) Ltd. v. CIT [1981] 129 ITR 603, dealing with certain facts and circumstances where income could be said to be taxable. From all these decisions, two facts emerge. The burden is on the Revenue to establish that the receipt is of a revenue character. Once a receipt is found to be of a revenue character, whether it comes under exemption or not, it is for the assessee to establish. Facts must be found by the Tribunal and the High Court must proceed on the basis of the facts found by the Tribunal. The High Court cannot afresh go to the facts overruling the facts found by the Tribunal unless there is a question to that effect challenging the facts foun ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... port as follows : " I think only such losses can be deducted as are connected with in the sense that they are really incidental to the trade itself. They cannot be deducted if they are mainly incidental to some other vocation or fall on the trader in some character other than that of a trader. The nature of the trade is to be considered. To give an illustration, losses sustained by railway company in compensating passengers for accidents in travelling might be deducted. On the other hand, if a man kept a grocer's shop for keeping which a house is necessary, and one of the window shutters fell upon and injured a man walking in the street, the loss arising thereby to the grocer ought not to be deducted. Many cases might be put near the line and no degree of ingenuity can frame a formula so precise and comprehensive as to solve at sight all the cases that may arise." In the case of Commissioners of Inland Revenue v. E. C. Warnes & Co. Ltd. [1919] 12 TC 227, at page 231 of the Report, Rowlatt J. observed: " I may shelter myself behind the authority of Lord Loreburn, who, in his judgment in the House of Lords in Strong & Co. v. Woodifield [1906] AC 448, said that it is impossible to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
