9911796707
TMI Blog1968 (9) TMI 35X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was, during the relevant year of account, associated in different capacities with about twenty-four institutions and organizations engaged in social welfare work and she was also connected with certain other institutions and organizations with which she had to carry on correspondence during the relevant year of account. Out of these twenty-four institutions with which she was associated in one capacity or the other, there were four whose meetings were held outside Ahmedabad and they were (1) Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, (2) National Council of Women, (3) Bombay State Welfare Board, and (4) Nutan Bagh Shiksha Sangh. The assessee's wife incurred an expenditure of Rs. 5,182 for attending the meetings of these four institutions during the relevant year of account. The expenditure of the assessee's wife was included for the purpose of computation in the taxable expenditure of the assessee under section 4(ii) and the question, therefore, arose whether the expenditure of Rs. 5,182 incurred by the assessee's wife was taxable as expenditure of the assessee or was exempt from expenditure-tax. The assessee claimed that this expenditure was incurred by his wife wholly and exclusiv ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... incurred the assessee and was not extended to expenditure which, though not actually incurred by the assessee, was yet includible in the taxable expenditure of the assessee. The Tribunal accordingly held that the expenditure incurred by the assessee's wife was exempt under section 5(a). This view taken by the Tribunal is challenged before us in the present reference made at the instance of the Commissioner of Expenditure-tax. Two questions are referred to us for our opinion and they are : " (1) Whether, on the facts and circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was justified in holding that the activities which the wife of the assessee was engaged in amounted to a vocation or occupation within the meaning of section 5(a) of the Act ? (2) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the assessee was entitled to claim exemption under section 5(a) of the Act in respect of the expenditure incurred by the wife of the assessee wholly and exclusively for the purpose of her vocation or occupation? " We may point out at the outset that, so far as the second question is concerned, the revenue did not press it and it is, therefore, not necessary for us to answer it. The ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fact produces an income, that is taxable income and none the less because it was carried on without the motive of producing any income. This, we believe, is too well established on the authorities now to be questioned. It was decided as early as 1888 in the case of Commissioners of Inland Revenue v. Incorporated Council of Law Reporting and followed ever since, that ' it is not essential to the carrying on of trade that the people carrying it on should make a profit, nor is it even necessary to the carrying on of trade that the people carrying on of trade that the people carrying it on should desire or wish to make a profit ...... it matters not carrying it on should des whether that activity is called by the name of business, profession, vocation or by any other name or with what intention it was carried on. " This decision of the Supreme Court was of course given in reference to a question arising under the Income-tax Act but the reasoning on which it is based must apply equally to a question arising under the Expenditure-tax Act. Moreover, there is also a decision of a Division Bench of this court consisting of K. T. Desai C. J., as he then was, and myself in Commissioner of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ambit of the exempting provision non personal expenditure incurred by an assessee in connection with a much wider class of activity than what would be comprehended within the expression " business, profession or vocation ". The revenue also did not dispute this proposition and conceded that " occupation " was a word of much wider signification than " vocation " which, in its turn, was again wider than " business " or " profession ", but the contention of the revenue was that, however wide that word might be, it did not include within it activity such as the one carried on by the assessee's wife in the present case. What then does the word " occupation " mean ? The decided cases illustrate the futility of attempting a definition of the word " occupation ". So vast is the range of human activity and so diverse and varied its nature that it is well-nigh impossible to find a definition exclusive or inclusive which will take in all activities falling within the, matrix of "occupation" and leave out those which do not. The word "occupation" is a word of large and indefinite import and its meaning is not susceptible of any precise or definite formulation. No universal test can be laid ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... also another as a side line. " It may be debatable whether the idea of continuity or regularity is a necessary ingredient of the concept of " occupation " and if so what degree of regularity or continuity is requisite to qualify an activity for coming within the category of " occupation ". But one thing is clear that whatever else " occupation " may comprise, activity in a specific line of endeavour which engages or occupies time and attention of a person and which is carried on with a certain amount of continuity or regularity in the sense that it is not " momentary "---not " an isolated or semi-occasional and temporary adventure " in that line of endeavour-would certainly constitute " occupation ". Applying this test to the facts found by the Tribunal, the activity of the assessee's wife must be held to be her " occupation ". The Tribunal found as a fact that the assessee's wife was associated in one capacity or another with twenty-four different institutions engaged in social and constructive work ; she was a vice-president in some of the institutions, a trustee and treasurer in some others and a member of the managing committee in the rest ; she was also devoting her time ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
