9911796707
TMI Blog1980 (10) TMI 92X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the concept of a public charitable trust. In his view the provision for rendering monetary help to any person for his personal needs of the members of his family as may be decided by the Trustees was repugnant to his claim for exemption of income pertaining to a public charitable trust. Against this order the assessee went in appeal before the AAC who disagreed with the finding of the ITO. In his view, the Trust was fully qualified as a public charitable trust to claim exemption of its income. The Revenue impugned the finding of the AAC by filing an appeal before the Tribunal. A point was canvassed on behalf of the Revenue before the Tribunal that the assessee carried on trading activities which were reflected from the profit and loss accou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... case back to the AAC to enable him to deal with the whole spectrum of the case when passing fresh order. We refrain from going any deeper in the case. The AAC shall pass fresh orders according to law after giving both the parties due opportunity of representation." 2. The appeal was being restored to the AAC who delved into the facts once again. According to him, trading activities of the Trust were not fatal to its claim for exemption on the ground that it was a Public Charitable Trust. According to him cl. (ix) of the Deed of Trust which permitted it to carry on business was not the primary or secondary object of the Trust but was only a means or device to achieve the fulfilment of the objects laid out in the Deed of Trust. He observe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oduce the whole of the clause alongwith the proviso which will be the principal material on which we will reach a finding. 3. The objects of the Trust shall be— "(i) To establish and promote the establishment of and/or render aid to schools, Colleges and other educational and training institutions. (ii) To establish, support, maintain or aid technical engineering and/or commercial colleges and also schools and colleges for science, arts, etc., and for promotion of science, literature and fine arts and for the diffusion of useful knowledge and for the collection of various works of natural art and natural history or other useful subjects. (iii) To establish promote or render aid to schools and educational institutions for the spr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t incorporated in these presents but the validity of the Trust created by these presents as a Trust for public and charitable purposes shall not be affected in any manner." According to the counsel for the assessee there were 10 clauses giving various objects of the Trust. The objective referred to in cl. (vii) was one of them which so far has not been acted upon. therefore, it was wrong on the part of the IT authorities to think that this clause may be given precedent over other clauses and the entire income of the Trust may be spent in realizing the objective detailed in this. He further referred our attention to the aforesaid proviso which ensured that in case if any of the objects was found to be not charitable or was held not to be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... amount to an uncharitable act. The aim of charity is not to benefit all persons of humanity. Charity to fellow beings will always have reference to individuals only. The provision does not offend the definition of charitable purpose in s. 2(15A) of the Act, which includes the relief of the poor. The omission of the term 'poor' is quite met out by providing for help to a person for his personal needs. We cannot hold that the term 'personal needs' may vary with individuals and for a wealthy man provision of whisky and objects of fast living may constitute his personal need. We would be reading in the terms personal need a meaning out of context with our society and surroundings. In our society personal need is confined to provision of fulfilm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... carry out the dominant intention. If any object was found to be offensive to the dominant intention, the same shall be self eliminated. In this view we do not find that AAC correctly advised himself that the trust was not a public charitable trust because one of the sub-objects was that there was provision of rendering to an individual or his family for personal needs. We vacate his finding and direct that trust be considered as a public charitable trust, entitled to claim under s. 11. Since we have held the trust to be public charitable trust entitled to claim exemption under s. 11, we refrain from recording our finding as respects ground No. 3. In the result, appeal filed by the assessee is allowed. - - TaxTMI - TMITax - Incom ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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