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TMI Blog1983 (6) TMI 60X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Act, but subsequently as it was set aside under section 146 of the Act, fresh assessment came to be made by the ITO on the assessee in the status of AOP, who estimated the cash receipts at Rs. 65,000 and receipt of gold ornaments At Rs. 10,000, i.e., he estimated the gross receipts at Rs. 75,000, out of which the expenses claimed by the assessee in a figure of Rs. 49,352 duly reduced by the shares of the members of the assessee-AOP, and charity in a figure of Rs. 20,231, net sum of Rs. 29,121 was deducted out of said estimated gross receipts of Rs. 75,000 and the income was computed in a sum of Rs. 45,880, 3. When this assessment of the assessee came to be disputed before the AAC, she held that the assessee-AOP had nothing to do with the income of the temple as the said income, if at all any, belonged to the deity and she, therefore, computed the same at nil in the hands of the assessee. 4. It is this action of the AAC which is disputed by the revenue before us. The learned senior departmental representative, Mr. R.K. Bali, while disputing this action of the AAC on two main grounds--taking the assessee's income at nil and holding that income, if any, belonged to the deity, m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ppeared in different forms only in certain ranges of Himalayas, central ranges of which are known as 'Avastamshgiri'. One of the ranges out of it is known as 'Pir Panjal' of which one of the branches is 'Shivalik'. On this range are situated temples such as of 'Naina Devi', 'Chintapurni' and on the adjacent range known as 'Dhaulidhar' are situated 'Jawalamukhi', 'Vajreshwari' at Kangra and 'Chamunda Devi'. These very branches of Pir Panjal crossing river Ravi reach Jammu and Kashmir, wherein a cave is situated 'Vaishno Devi' and all these temples are famous since centuries. In most of the temples, mode of puja is alike. We are here concerned only with Jawalamukhi Temple and the assessment of its management committee. This is a temple which can be termed unique in whole of the universe and nationally it is one of the most important religious places of entire humanity irrespective of caste, creed or communities. In this temple, at number of places, sacred fire 'Jawala' is coming out at different places. Again, as per Puranic mentions, 'Jawala' or 'Jyoti' as it is more popularly known with reverence, is available at 14 places at different times and the number of places wherever the sa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... shares, which also further get bifurcated and diluted with new births in their families. During the assessment year under consideration, there were only as many as 47 families. The gold ornaments were never to be distributed even amongst those who are doing puja, i.e., Bhojikis families, and the same were to be retained for the deity. The right of puja has been inherited and so is the right of inheriting the net cash offerings by birth by the Bhojikis families. This practice has been going on for hundreds of years. In order to see that affairs of temple are properly managed, there has been a committee and the assessee, which is known as a 'Mandir Prabandhkarni Committee, Jawalamukhi Temple', is constituted of 11 persons who are elected year after year annually, not out of the Bhojikis Brahmans only but out of the village as a whole, whose job is only to look after the management part. They are honorary except to the extent that some of the members of the committee, by virtue of their being Bhojikis and belonging to the families authorised to do puja, would only be getting their share not as members of the management committee but as Bhojikis Brahmans in their right to do puja, who ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o devotion and faith in God and not to the pandits who do the puja. There is also no dispute that the affairs are managed like this since centuries past. The old documents, referred to above, were rightly relied upon by the AAC while holding that the management committee had nil income and, if any income at all, the same belonged to the deity. It will be wrong to say that the management committee is a body of professionals. Once it can contain a man from the street who has nothing to do with puja and who by virtue of its member gets nothing, the finding of the ITO was incorrect and that of the AAC is right. This is also a fact that an identical issue, though for the subsequent assessment year, i.e., 1972-73 had been laid at rest in favour of the assessee by the ITO himself and the said assessment had been holding the field, as rightly observed by the AAC, as the same was neither cancelled under section 263 of the Act or disturbed in any other way. This is also trite law that the revenue should be consistent in its views as far as possible. Reliance of the assessee on certain judgments, as observed in the AAC's order, is also correctly placed. 9. As per our understanding of the fa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... duce income--CIT v. Indira Balkrishna [1960] 39 ITR 546 (SC) and Mohamed Noorullah v. CIT [1961] 42 ITR 115 (SC) as well as the commentary in Kanga and Palkhivala's Law and Practice of Income-tax, Vol. 1, Seventh edn., pages 66-70. Merely holding a joint position with some one, does not make the group an AOP unless there is first of all a joining together for a common purpose or action of earning profit. In the present case, each of the families would be performing the puja individually on the allotted day. There is really no joint action or coming together for a common purpose or performance specially when some members of the committee are outsiders who don't get even a pie as they are not entitled to do puja as they are not entitled to do so by birth. The next thing to be considered is whether, if not as an AOP, the families can be assessed as body of individuals. This category of the assessees has been added by the Act. However, the Act does not provide for any clear cut difference between an AOP and a body of individuals. The question of status of body of individuals has been considered in some decisions. In the case of Deccan Wine General Stores v. CIT [1977] 106 ITR 111, th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it is only with such a body that the Act is concerned. The Court expressed agreement with the view taken in the case of Deccan Wine General Stores. In the case of Meera Co. v. CIT [1979] 120 ITR 564, the Punjab and Haryana High Court held that the term 'body of individuals' did not signify a species of the broader category AOP. According to the Court, the term would include a combination of individuals who have a unity of interest but who are not actuated by a common design and one or more of whose members produce or help to produce income for the benefit of all. The body of individuals would not necessarily be the result of an agreement, arrangement or design. In the case before the Court, on the death intestate of an individual who was carrying on a business, his widow continued with the business on her behalf and on behalf of the three children. In these circumstances, by applying the test laid down in the two decisions, referred to above, namely, of the Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat High Courts, the Punjab and Haryana High Court held that the widow and her minor children constituted a body of individuals. In the case of CIT v. Deghamwala Estates [1980] 121 ITR 684, the Madras ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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