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TMI Blog1971 (1) TMI 24X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... contention found favour with the assessing authority and the proceedings were dropped. Assessment proceedings pending for the years 1356, 1361, 1362 and 1363 F. were similarly closed. The assessing authority who took proceedings for the years 1357 to 1360 F., however, adopted a different view and held the assessee liable to tax. Appeals were filed by the assessee against those assessment orders but the appeals were dismissed. Nine revision applications were filed before the Revision Board, five by the State relating to the years 1355, 1356, 1361, 1362 and 1363 F. and four by the assessee relating to the years 1357 to 1360 F. The Revision Board, by a common order dated December 10, 1968, allowed the revision applications of the State and dismissed those filed by the assessee. And now, this consolidated reference has been made. Section 8 of the Act, under which the exemption is claimed, provides: " 8. Exclusion of income from trust, etc.-Any income derived from property held under trust or other legal obligation wholly for religious or charitable purposes and, in the case of property so held in part only for such purposes, the income applied or finally set apart for application ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... titled to the exemption claimed. The Revision Board, in its order disposing of the revision applications, declined to take the gazetteers into consideration as, in its opinion, they merely referred to political events and were, therefore, irrelevant. The Board relied on the contents of a written statement said to have been filed by the assessee in proceedings under section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and deduced therefrom that the property was not held under any legal obligation for religious or charitable purposes. At this stage we may note that admittedly there is no copy of this document on the record. The attention of the Revision Board was drawn to that circumstance from time to time, specially by an application dated July 25, 1966, filed by the assessee and even as recently as the objection preferred by the assessee to the present statement of the case before it was finalised. As regards the thamra patras granted by the Nepal ruler, the Revision Board observed that there was no penal clause therein operating against the mahant if he failed to perform the puja and the other duties mentioned there. Upon those considerations, the Revision Board took the view that the pr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the mahants were maintained in the shrine and Hindu modes of worship " Like the ringing of bells and waving of lights " were adopted by Hindu visitors to the shrine. In respect of the origin and incidents of the institution, with which we are presently concerned, there is a large volume of material on the record. Inasmuch as the Revision Board has failed to consider material portions of it, I am compelled to set it out in some detail. The inscription in the gurdwara of Darbar Shri Guru Ram Rai Sahib recites that Guru Hari Rai was invited by the Moghal Emperor, Aurangazeb, to his court, but being incapacitated by old age, he sent instead a brilliant disciple, Guru Ram Rai, who resided for several years at the Moghul capital. Feeling his life drawing to a close, Guru Ram Bai retired into solitude to a place among the mountains. A building was constructed at the site where he died, and the altar at which he worshipped became a place of worship. A more definite narrative is set out in the Historical Statistical Memoirs, Dehra Dun, prepared in 1874, by G. R. C. Williams of the Bengal Civil Service. It is set out there that Guru Ram Rai, a lineal descendant of Guru Nanak, became th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tallation, and the complimentary gift in return was a pair of shawls. The distinctive head-dress of the sect worn by the high priest and his disciples was a cap of red cloth, shaped like a sugar-loaf, worked over with coloured thread and adorned with a black silk fringe round the rim. Apart from the Udasis, most Hindu sects furnish devotees who revere Guru Ram Rai as a saint. A fair is held at the time fixed for the annual ceremonies of the saint which are observed at the time of the Hindu festival, Holi. It seems from all this that the Udasi sect and its institutions are generally governed by the Hindu law, and the case of Darbar Shri Guru Ram Rai Maharaj of Debra Dun must be considered accordingly. Garhwal was annexed by the conquering Gorkha kings of Nepal and thereafter, as appears from the copper plates or thamra patras of Sambat 1866 and 1871, free grants of land were made at Debra in Sambat 1866 to Mahant Har Sewak for faithfully offering kayak (oblations) worth eight annas daily, performing daily puja according to religious rules, running sadabrat and praying for the welfare of the Gorkha rulers. The region then passed under British rule. The British Government was sa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re described under the denomination " religious endowment " and reference is made there to the Government order of January 15, 1819, under which the land was released in perpetuity in favour of Mahant Swarup Das and his successors. The genuineness of the documents has not been disputed, and the entire debate has been confined to the issue whether upon the documentary evidence we can hold that the property was held under a legal obligation wholly for religious or charitable purposes. Upon careful consideration, it appears to me that the issue must be resolved in favour of the assessee. The circumstances in which the institution came into existence at Dehra Dun, the position occupied by Guru Ram Rai and his successors as heads of a religious group, the high regard in which the Gurus and the religious institution were held by the Rajas of Garhwal and the Gorkha rulers of Nepal, the repeated reference in the documents that the villages were settled by way of endowment in support of the institution, the conditions mentioned in the thamra patras that daily puja, including the offering of karah, should be performed according to religious rules and that sadabrat should be observed, and t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the assignment of the villages for the support of the Debra was confirmed by the British revenue administration after it was satisfied of the validity of the claim upon an examination of the sanads produced by Mahant Har Sewak. Robkaris have been held to constitute relevant evidence in support of dedication, and in Madhab Chandra v. Rani Sarat Kumari the learned judges of the Calcutta High Court referred to the nature of the enquiry effected on the making of a robkari. They observed : " We are of opinion that it would certainly be open to an officer acting under that regulation to enquire into the grounds set forward in support of a rent-free grant claimed, and when these grounds are based on the allegation that the lands had been dedicated for a public charitable purpose, then it would be necessary for such officer for the purpose of arriving at a conclusion as to whether or not there was a valid rent-free grant to take into consideration and decide incidentally the question whether there had been a dedication for a charitable purpose." It was faintly contended that the property represented a family inheritance which devolved from father to son, and an attempt was made to sho ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... men who combined in them a high standard of spiritual knowledge with moral purity. That is the reason why large grants of land were made in their favour by princes and noblemen. A shrine or a temple may ordinarily be seen as an adjunct to a mutt, but it is not a necessary one and even when it exists it is not the chief or the indispensable part of the institution. It is only ancillary to the main purpose for which the mutt is endowed, and the presiding element in a mutt is always the mahant or the spiritual preceptor. During the arguments it was suggested on behalf of the State that the property is the personal property of the assessee. That contention is completely at variance with the accepted law. The property does not vest in the mahant, it vests in the mutt. In Vidyavaruthi Thirtha v. Baluswami Ayyar, the Privy Council defined the position of the mahant as follows : " Called by whatever name, he is only the manager and custodian of... the institution .... In no case was the property conveyed to or vested in him ...... " It was laid down in Babaji Rao Gambhirsing v. Laxmandas Guru Raghunathdas, that a mutt is a juridical person and is capable of acquiring, holding and vin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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