C.I.T. West Bengal III, Calcutta Vs.
Sri Jagannath Jee [1976] INSC 338 (17 December 1976)
KRISHNAIYER, V.R.
KRISHNAIYER, V.R.
KHANNA, HANS RAJ
CITATION: 1977 AIR 1523 1977 SCR (2) 483 1977
SCC (2) 519
ACT:
Income Tax Act 1922--Sec. 4(3)(i), 22(2)-Trust
for religious and charitable purposes--Whether deduction to deity or vesting in
trustees--If income of deity-Charge and diversion of income at source.
Indian Succession Act, 1925--Sec.
87-Will---Construction of a Will of a religious Hindu drafted by English solicitor--Whether
court must look into the real intention.
HEADNOTE:
Raja Rajendra Mullick Bahadur of Calcutta
executed his last will on 21-2-1887. The author of the Will was a religious
minded Indian, the draftsman of the document was John Hart, an English
Solicitor. The Will open with the words 'I hereby dedicate and make debutter my
Thakurbaree'.The Income Tax Officer issued notices requiring filing of the
returns against the Deity Thakurbaree. On b:half of Deity, a nil income return
was filed under s.
22(2) of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1922 for
the assessment years 1956-57 and 1957-58. In connection with the writ petition
filed in the High Court for the proceedings in respect of assessment years
1955-56 it was conceded by the Revenue that a part of the income of the
assessee which would be proved before the Income Tax authorities to have been
applied in connection with feeding of the poor, subscription to other charities
enuring for the benefit of the public would be exempted under s. 4(3)(i) of the
Income Tax Act, 1922.
The Revenue contended that on a true
construction of the said will there was a complete dedication of the property
to the Deity and, therefore, the income arising from the said property was
taxable in the hands of Deity. It was, however, contended by the assessee that
the remuneration of the trustees and the allowances to the widows of the deceased
trustees as provided in the Will created a charge on the income of the trust
estate and should therefore be treated as diversion of the income of the trust
before it accrued in the hand of the trustees. The Income Tax Officer taxed the
income of the Deity deducting therefrom such amounts as were conceded before
the High Court in respect of the prior year. The appeal preferred by the
assessee was dismissed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. Before the
Tribunal, the Revenue substantially succeeded.
Thereafter, the Tribunal referred 4 questions
of .law to the High Court, two at the instance of the assessee and. two at the
instance. of the Revenue., The High Court on a meticulous consideration of the
entire Will decided against the Revenue and took the view that reading the Will
as a whole the entire beneficial interest in the properties did not vest in the
assessee Deity. Assessee Deity was not the owner of the properties and,
therefore. the only income which could be subjected to income tax in the hands
of the assessee would be the beneficial interest of the said Deity under the
Will which would be the expenses incurred for Seva Puja of the Deity and for
the various religious ceremonies connected with the said Deity and the value of
the residence of the Deity in the temple.
Allowing the appeal,
HELD: 1. The Will represents pious Bengali
Wishes and disposition but drafted in the hands of an English Solicitor. The
court's function in such an 484 ambiguous situations to steer clear of the
confusion imparted by the diction and to read the real intention of the
testator. The courts discerning loyalty is not to the formalitistic language
used in drawing up the deeds but to the intentions which the disponer desired
should take effect in the manner he designed. The real question is whether the
testator created an absolute or partial debutter or was there no dedication to
the idol but a vesting of the legal estate in the trustees. The use of the
words like trust, trustees and Shebaits can lend support to the contention that
the legal estate vested in the trustees.However, the court has to push aside
the English hand to reach at the Indian heart. We are construing the Will of a
pious Hindu aristocrat whose faith in ritual performances was more than matched
by his ecumenical perspective. Secondly, the sacred sentiment writ large in the
Will is his total devotion and surrender to the family Deity Shri Jagannathjee.
It looks like doing Violence to the heart of the Will if one sidesteps the
Deity to the status of but one of the beneficiaries. The Will in the forefront
declares the dedication to the Deity.The expression trust, trustees and
shebaits were indiscriminately used. The expressions are uncertain of the
precise import of these English legal terms in the Indian context. The idol
was, therefore, the legal owner of the whole and liable to be assessed as such.
[485A, B, C, 490F, 491B, C-D, 497D, 499E]
2. The court negatived the contention that
even if the property vested in the Deity, all the amounts to be spent on the
Shebaits and the members of their family on the upkeep of horses and carriages
and repair of buildings etc. were charge on the income and, therefore, the same
did not and could not come into the hands of the Deity as his income and could
not be taxed as such. If the Shebaits received rent and interest to the extent
of these other disbursements they received the amounts merely as collectors of
rents etc. and not as receivers of income. The terms in which the directions
are couched do not divest the income at the source but merely direct a Shebait
to apply the income received from the debutter properties for specified
purposes.
[499E-H, 501F-G]
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeals
Nos. 1682-1683/ 71.
(From the Judgment and Order dated the 14th
May 1969 of the Calcutta High Court in I.T. Ref. No. 60 of 1968) G.C. Sharma
and R.N. Sachthey, for the appellant B. Sen, S.K. Banerice and P.K. Mukherjee,
for respondent.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
KRISHNA IYER, J.--The fiscal--not the philosophicalimplications of Jesus'
pragmatic injunction 'Render to Ceasar the things that are Caesar's, and to God
the things that are God's--fall for jural exploration in these appeals by
special leave, the appellant being the Union of India represented by the
Commissioner of Income-tax, West Bengal, and the Respondent, Sree Jagannathji
and the subject-matter the taxability of the deity Jagannathji by the State
under the Income-tax Act, 1922, beyond the admitted point. To appreciate the
exigibility issue, we have to flash back to 19th Century Bengal and the then
prevailing societal ethos of affluent Hindu Piety, and we find ourselves in the
spiritual-legal company of Raja Rajendra Mullick, at once holy and wealthy,
who, in advancing years, executed a comprehensive will to promote his cherished
godly wishes and to provide for his secularly dear cause and near relatives.
The construction of this testamentary complex
of dispositions and the location of its destination are the principal exercises
in these appeals.
485 Raja Rajendra Mullick Bahadur of Calcutta
executed his last will and testament on 21 February 1887. While the author of
the will was a Bengali brahmin of the last century, the draftsman of the
document was John Hart, an English solicitor. While the author's wishes are
usually transmitted into the deed by the draftsman, the diction and accent are
flavoured by the draftsman's ink. So it happens that this will represents pious
Bengali wishes and dispositions--but draped in an English Solicitor's legalese.
The Court's function in such an ambiguous situation is to steer clear of the
confusion imparted by the diction and to reach the real intendment (of the
testator). Such an essay in ascertaining the true intent of Raja Rajendra
Mullick if fraught with difficulties and our guideline has to be to pick it up
from the conspectus of clauses--rather than from particular expressions or
isolated features. Only the totality tells the story of the author's mind as he
unburdened himself of his properties for causes and purposes dear to his heart.
The Court's discerning loyalty is not to the formalistic language used in
drawing up the deed but to the intentions which the disponer desired should
take effect in the manner he designed. This hack-drop of observations made, we
proceed to a broad delineation of the actual provisions.
The munificent testator had enormous estates,
lavish charity, piety aplenty and a large family. So he trifurcated his assets
as it were, provided for religious objects, eleemosynary purposes and members
of his family. The last was distinctly and separately dealt with and we are not
concerned with the bequests so made. But the first two were more or less lugged
together and ample properties earmarked therefore. How did he engineer into
legal effect these twin purposes ? Did he create an absolute debutter of these
properties, totally dedicating them to the deity whose devotees he and his
father were, coupled with several directions, addressed to the shebaits, for
application of the income for performance of stated pujas, execution of public
charitable projects and payment of remuneration for sheba plus liberal grants
and facilities to the sons and widows of sons who were objects of his bounty?
Or did he really create a trust in the sense of the English law vesting the
whole estate in trustees saddled with obligations to expend the income for
enumerated items, godly and philantrophic, creating but a partial debutter?
This is the key question calling for adjudication but an alternative but
interlaced issue also arises. Assuming that a total debutter had been created,
did the will contain directions for expenditure which siphoned off the income,
as it accrued, for specified objects and entities in such manner that by such
over-riding diversion at the source, such income did not get into the hands of
Lord Jagannath qua His income but reached Him merely as collector of. those
receipts to be disbursed for meeting those paramount claims and charged for
those destined uses ? Or could it be the true meaning of the clauses that the
whole income was to be derived by the deity but later to be applied by the
human agencies representing Him for fulfiling objects, secular and sacred? A
skeletal picture of the complex of provisions of the will has to be projected
now for a better understanding of the pros and cons of 486 the controversy. The
will opens with the words: 'I hereby dedicate and make debutter my
Thakoorbaree' and mentions a mansion which is to be the abode of his God. 'I
hereby give, dedicate and make dabuttar all the jewels... heretofore used, for
the worship of the Thakoors... is another racital whereby valuables are
dedicated. These are for direct use and both the Lord's mansion and the Lord's
adornments yield great spiritual bliss but no secular income.
Prima facie, the language is unmistakable and
a full dedication and, argues Shri Sharma for the Revenue, the creation of
absolute debutter is an unchallengeable inference.
Equally indisputable is the character of the
last of bequests to his sons (save one who has been disinherited) and widows of
deceased sons and these are admittedly out of the area of dispute before us.
But in between lies the estate (including securities) which yields high income
and is disposed of in terms which lend themselves to contrary constructions,
marginal obscurity and conceptual mix-up of ideas borrowed from English and
Hindu law. 'I do hereby give, dedicate and make debutter in the name and for
the worship of my Thakoor Sree Sree Jagannath Jee the following properties'--so
run them. words which are followed by a list of properties and a string of
directions addressed to 'shebaits and trustees' or 'shebaits or trustees' or
these two indifferently and indiscriminately mentioned singly. He even directed
a board of trustees to be constituted in the event of male heirs failing, to
take over shebaitship and execution of the trusts--and here and there referred
to trusts under the deed. Nor were all the incomes to be devoted to pooja. His
cultivated and compassionate mind had many kindly concerns and finer pursuits.
The enlightened donor appears to have had an
aristocratic and aesthetic flair for promoting the joy of life and a
philanthropic passion to share it, even posthumously, with the public at large.
His charitable disposition seems to have overpowered his love of castemen and
his kindness for living creatures claimed a share of his generosity. These
noble and multiple instincts persuaded him to make an art collection which
could be reckoned as among the best an individual could be proud of anywhere in
the world and these paintings and sculptures, he directed, shall be kept open
for public delight, free of charge. He maintained a glorious garden which he
wished should be kept in fine trim and be hospitable for any member of the
public who liked to relax in beautiful surrounds. His compassionate soul had, in
lofty sentiment of fellow-feeling, collected birds and non-carnivorous animals.
But, after him, the aviary and meanagerisa were to be taken care of and lovers
of birds and animals were, according to his testamentary direction, permitted
to seek retreat and pleasure among their natural environs. Of course, he
rewarded his sons and widows sumptuously, the lay-out on the rituals of worship
consuming but a portion of the total income.
At this stage, the litigative journey may be
sketched to indicate how the dispute originated, developed and gained access to
this Court, The story of this tax entanglement began nearly two decades ago
with the I.T.O. issuing notices and the assessee deity responding with 'nil'
returns under s. 22(2) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 for the 487
assessment years 1956-57 and 1957-58. A portion however was, by legitimate
concession of the Income Tax Department, carved out of the total income as
non-taxable. According to the High Court.
"When the proceedings for the assessment
year 1955-56 were pending before the Income Tax Officer, the assessee had filed
an application under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India and had obtained an
interim stay against the said proceedings. It appears that on the 9th October
1961 in terms of the settlement arrived at between the Income Tax Department
and the assessee the interim stay of proceedings was vacated. It was recorded
in the said order that part of the income of the assessee which would be proved
before the Income Tax Authorities to have been applied in connection with (a)
feeding of the poor, (b) subscription to other charities enuring for the
benefit of the public would be exempted under s. 4(3)(i) of Indian Income-tax
Act, 1922." We regard this stand of the Revenue as correct in the light of
the provisions of s.4(3) (i) and hold, in limine, that whatever the outcome of
the contest, the amounts spent on poor feeding and other public charitable
purposes are outside the reach of the tax net and are totally exempt. We may,
in fairness, state here that counsel for the Revenue, Shri Sharma, rightly
agreed that the correct legal position, on a sound understanding of s.4(3) (i)
of the Act, was that these charitable expenditures were totally deductible from
the computation for fixing the tax.
Let us continue the later developments. For
assessment for the year 1956-57 the Income-tax Officer was of the opinion, on
the construction of the said will, that besides directions for spending amounts
on charitable objects, the will had also provided for payment of certain fixed
allowances to the acting shebaits as well as the widows of the deceased
shebaits, maintenance of horse-drawn carriages and motor cars for the use of
the shebaits, medical aids to the shebaits, and the members of their families,
expenses on account of Srardh caremony of the ancestors of the shebaits and
other private charities. On behalf of the assessee it was claimed before the
ITO that the remuneration the trustees and the allowances to the widows of the
deceased trustees as provided in the will created a charge on the income of the
Trust estate and should therefore be treated as diversion of the income of the
trust before it accrued in the hands of the trustees. The ITO rejected that
contention. lie held that reading the will as a whole it was clear that the
remuneration to the shebaits and the allowances to the widows were merely
applications of the trust income and as such not deductible. According to the
ITO, under the will, the shebaits and trustees were to, collect the income of
the whole debutter property in the first instance and after paying the
government revenues and taxes and rates and other outgoings, perform the puja
and the other ceremonies for the worship of the family deity and therefore
spend amounts on charitable and public purposes and lastly to pay the
remuneration, allowances and 1546SCI/76 488 private donations. The ITO
therefore determined the income of the trust estate under ss. 9 and 12 of the
Indian Income. Tax Act, 1922 and computed income from property at Rs. 1,94,377/and
income from other sources at Rs. 97,248 making a total of Rs. 2,91,625/-. From
the above he deducted the amounts spent on charitable objects such as feeding
of the poor, maintenance of art gallery and managerie for birds and non-carnivorous
animals. A sum of Rs. 1,32,023/was subjected to tax for the assessment year
1956-57. The ITO followed the same principle for the assessment year 1957-58
and determined the assessable income at Rs. 1,06,067/-.
The assessee preferred appeals before the
Appellate Assistant Commissioner, who passed a consolidated order on November
25, 1963 dismissing the assessee's appeals on all the grounds.
On appeal to the Tribunal, a full legal
debate followed and, while the Revenue won substantially, some items more were
held exempt on the holding that the direction contained in the will for the
expenditure on the performance of Sradh and other ceremonies for the spiritual
benefit of the testator and his ancestors must also be held to be obligations created
by the testator which the trustees or the shebaits were obliged to discharge
before applying the income for the benefit of the deity. Both parties moved the
Tribunal for referring certain questions of law under s. 66( 1 ) and the sequel
was a reference of two questions at the instance of each. The four questions
may be set out as the starting point of the discussion:
"( 1 ) Whether on a proper construction
of the will of the late Raja Rajendra Mullick dated 21St February 1887, the
Tribunal was fight in rejecting the assessee's claim that the only incomes
which could be subjected to income-tax in the hands of the deity Sri Sri
Jagannath Jee are the beneficial interests of the said deity under the terms of
the will as represented by the expenses incurred by the shebaits for the daily
Seva Puja of the deity and the performance of the various religious ceremonies
connected with the said deity as mentioned in the will ? (2) If the answer to
the above question be in the positive, whether on the facts and in the
circumstances of the ease and on a proper interpretation of the terms of the
will of the late Raja Rajendra Mullick Bahadur, the Tribunal was right in
holding that the expenses incurred for payment of remuneration to the shebaits,
and the monthly allowances paid to the widows of the deceased shebaits, as also
the expenditure incurred for maintaining horses, carriages or motor cars for
the use of shebaits concerned and the annual value of such part of the debutter
property as is being used by the shebaits and their families for the purpose of
their residence, all in terms of the aforsaid will, could be included in the
total income of the assessee in this case ? (Questions referred by assessee)
489 (3) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and on a
proper construction of the will of Raja Rajendra Mullick executed on the 21st
February 1887 the Tribunal was right in holding that the surplus of the income
of the estate after defraying the expenses mentioned in the said will was held
in trust for charitable purposes and was thus exempt from taxation under s.4(3)
(i) of the Indian Income tax, Act 1922 ? (4) Whether, on the facts and in the
circumstances of the case and on a proper construction of the aforesaid will
the tribunal was right in holding that the amounts spent for performing Sradh
and other ceremonies for the Spiritual benefit of the testator as well as
subscriptions and donations to charitable societies and for charitable purposes
were diverted by an overriding title and was accordingly to be excluded from
the total income of the Deity ?" Questions referred by the CIT) The High
Court, on a meticulous consideration of the entire will, decided against the
Revenue on the spinal issue and took the view that "reading the will as a
whole we are of the opinion that the entire beneficial interest in the
properties did not vest in the assessee deity. The assessee deity was not the
owner of the properties. Therefore the only income which could be subjected to
income tax in the hands of assessee would be the beneficial interest of the
said deity under the will, which would be expenses incurred for the seva puja
of the deity and for the various religious ceremonies connected with the said
deity and the value of the residence of the deity in the Temple." The back
of the State's contention was thus broken but, even though vanquished, by
special leave it.sought to agitate in appeal the case that the testator had
created an absolute debutter of the whole estate, and not a trust with estate
vested in the trustees, that the directions given to the 'shebaits and
trustees' were mere mandates for application of the income in the hands of the
deity and not over-tiding diversion at the source and so all the receipts, save
what had been excluded by the. officer, were exigible to tax.
Although it may not be strictly pertinent as
a circumstance to spell out the intention of the testator, it may be of value
as background material to have a sample break-up of the figures of expenditure
laid 490 out in fact in one of the assessment years. We give the actuals for
1956-57:
Rs. (1)Expenses incurred for the poojas
specified for the will 4,637/(2)The money laid out on feeding the poor 78,295/(3)The
cost of maintaining the art gallery 36,963/(4) Upkeep of the aviary and
menagerie 13,263/(5) Cost of keeping the garden trim 2,979/(6) Other
miscellaneous charges 4,014/(7) Expenses laid out on the shebaits and trustees,
their residence and main tenance of the horse-drawn carriages etc 66,254/It is
fair to comment that, even making allowance for annual variations, price
fluctuations and change in circumstances, the pujas consume but a small
fraction, that public charitable purposes bulk prominently in the budgeted expenditure
and that the sums spent on the 'shebaits and trustees' are liberal enough to
exceed prudent reward for services. To set the record straight, it must be
stated that a preponderant part of the income was spent on general public
charitable causes like poor feeding, art gallery, aviary, menagerie and keeping
a garden. Together with the cost of the rituals the budget was dominently
religioncharitable. These facts have no bearing on the construction of the will
but invests the perspective with a touch of realism.
We may now tackle the crucial problem in the
case--the decoding of the will to discover the repository of the gift.
Did the testator create an absolute or
partial debutter? Or was there no dedication to the idol but a vesting of the
legal estate in the trustees (in the sense of the English law) with figuciary
obligations to expend for specific purposes. Shree Jagannathjee ranking as one
among the recipients of his benefactions ? The use of words like 'trusts',
'shebaits and trustees' has lent muscle to this logomachic exercise but we have
to push aside the English hand to reach at the Indian heart.
The principles governing the situation are
those which rulings of courts, imbibing the Indian ethos, appreciating the
Hindu sacred sentiments and applying the law of religious and charitable trusts
gathered from ancient texts, have crystallised into an informal code. The
passage of decades after the enactment of the Constitution has not succeeded in
persuading Parliament into legislative action for making a secular code except
of some limited extent governing the subject of Indian charitable trusts. And
this unnoticed parliamentary procrastination has compelled the courts to dive
into hoary books and' vintage case-law to ascertain the current law. We will
therefore navigate, with this ancient mariner's compass, although we have the
advantage of an authoritative work in B.K. Mukherjea on Hindu Law Religious and
Charitable Trusts, relied on by counsel on both sides.
491 Two paramount background considerations
of assistance to decipher the intention of the testator, which have appealed to
us, may be mentioned first. We are construing the will of a pious Hindus
aristocrat whose faith in ritual performances was more than matched by his
ecumenical perspective, whose anxiety for spiritual merit for himself and his
manes was balanced by a universal love and compassion. Secondly, the sacred
sentiment writ large in the will is his total devotion and surrender to the
family deity Sree Jagannath Jee.
It is easy to see that, in formal terms, the
author makes a dedication to Sree Jagsmath Jee and calls the properties
debutter. But Shri B. Sen, for the respondents,.contests the finality of such a
verbal test and counters it by reliance on expressions like 'shebaits and trustees'
and 'trusts' and urges that there are no clear words of vesting so far as the
second category of properties is concerned. It is trite but true that while the
label 'debutter' may not clinch the legal character, there is much in a name,
fragrant with profound sentiment and expressive of inner dedication. It looks
like doing violence to the heart of the will if we side-step Sree Jagannath Jee
as the divine dedicatee, down-grade him to the status of but one of the
beneficiaries and; by judicial construction, transmit the sanctified estate
into human hands as the legal owners to distribute the income, one of the
several objects being doing pujas prescribed.
The will, right in the forefront, declares:
'I hereby dedicate make debutter', 'I do hereby dedicate and make debutter in
the name and for the worship of my Thakoor Sree Sree Jagannath Jee the
following properties...' 'I hereby give, dedicate and make debutter all the
jewels ... to the said Thakoor Sree Sree Jagannathjee'. These solemn and
emphatic dedicative expressions cannot be wasted words used by an English
Solicitor but implementatory of the intention of the donor whose inmost
spiritual commitment, gathered from the many clauses, appears to be towards his
family Thakoor. Of course, if there are the clearest clauses striking a
contrary note and creating but a partial debutter, this dedicative diction must
bow down. The law is set down thus by B.K. Mukerjea:
"The fact that property is ordinarily described
as Debutter is certainly a piece of evidence in favour of dedication, but not
conclusive. In Binod Behari v. Manmatha (21 C.L.J. 42) Cox J. observed as
follows :-"The fact that the property is called Debutter is a doubtless
evidence in the plaintiff's favour but it does not relieve them of the whole
burden of proving that the land was dedicated and is inalienable." (p.
131) Though inconclusive it carries weight in the light of what we may call the
mission of the disposition which is inspired by devotion to 'my Thakoor' and
animated by a general religious fulfilment. It must be 492 remembered that the
donor was not tied down by bigotry to performance of pujas, important though
they were. A more cosmic and liberal view of Hinduism informed his soul and so
in his declaration of dedication to Sree Jagannathjee he addressed to the
managers many directions of a broadly religious and charitable character. His
injunction to feed the poor was Narayana Seva, for worship of God through
service of man in a land where the divinity in daridra narayana is conceptually
commonplace and, while it is overtly secular, its motive springs from spiritual
source& It is religion to love the poor. Likewise, his insistence on the
aviary and the menageries and throwing open both to the people to see and
delight is not a mundane mania but has deeper religious roots. Hinduism
worships all creation:
(peace be unto all bipeds and even so to all
quadrupeds)).
Indeed, the love of sub-human brethren. is
high religion.
For "He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small, For the dear God who loveth us, He made and
loveth all." (Coleridge, in Ancient Mariner) From the Buddha and Mahavira
to St. Francis of Assissi and Gandhiji, compassion for living creatures is a
profound religious motivation. The sublime mind of Mullick was obviously in
religious sympathy with fellow-beings of the lower order when he should this
tenderness to birds and beasts and shared it with the public. The art gallery
too had link with religion in its wider connotation although it is plainer to
regard it as a gesture of aesthetics and charitable disposition. God is Truth,
Truth is beauty, beauty Truth. A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. In fact,
for a highly elevated Indian mind, this conceptual nexus is not far-fetched.
The garden and the 1love of flowers strike a psychic chord at once beautiful
and religiously mystical, as any reader of Wordsworth or other great poet in
English or Sanskrit will agree. The point is that the multiform dispositions
had been united by a spiritual thirst and, if read in their integrality, could
be designated religions-cum-charitable. In sum, the primary intendment was to
dedicate as debutter and to direct fulfilment of uplifting religions and
para-religious purposes, the focus being on worship of Sree Jagannathjee and
the fall-out some subsidiary, yet significant, charitable items. The finer note
struck by the felt necessities of his soul was divinised and humanised, the
central object being Sree Jagannathji, the Lord of the Universe.
Of course Sri Sen submits that verbalism
cannot take us far and the description of debutter cannot be decisive because
the magnitude of the expenses on the various items, apart from other telling
clauses 493 which will presently advert to, was indicative not of a dedication
to the idol but of the general charitable bunch of dispositions to be carried
out through the agency of trusteeship in the sense of the English Law. For
instance, he argues that feeding the poor, maintenance of the art gallery,
menagerie, aviary and gardens and fulfilment to the other' charities have
little to do with idol qua idol.
Moreover, making a substantial margin for the
remuneration of the Shebaiti, there is some clear excess in favour of donor's
family members in the amounts to be paid or spent on behalf of the
shebaits-cum-trustees. These are strongly suggestive of a non-debutter
character, especially because the cost of the poojas makes but a small bite on
the total income. He reinforces the submission by many other points which may
be mentioned at this stage. He states that the donor, if he meant a
straightforward case of debutter, would have confined himself to the expression
'shebaits' but there was a sedulous combination of 'shebaits' and or 'trustees'
and there was also reference to trusts in some places.
Provision for the heirs, for the residence of
the shebaitee's families, the norse carriages and the like also do not smack of
debutter. A specification of the minimum age of 18 to become shebaits and
trustees also savours of trusteeship rather than shebaitship. Appointment of a
Board of Trustees on shebaits failing in succession throws clear light on the
creation of a trust in the English sense rather than a debutter in the Hindu
sense. Again, shebaitship is property and if what is created is only
shebaitship, not trusteeship, how can the testator exclude females, insist on
18 years of age and prescribe a course of succession not quite consistent with
Hindu law? Does this not also point towards trusteeship and away from debutter?
In any case, a fair conclusion, according to Sri Sen, would be to regard the
appointees as shebaits for purposes of pooja and management of the shrine and
as trustees for the other substantial purposes. Which means that there is a
partial debutter and the vesting of the estate in the trustees.
There if other evidence to be gleaned from
the tenor of the will to which our attention has been drawn by Sri Sen with a
view to emphasize that public charities of a secular character, construction of
buildings for residence, for feeding the poor, repairs and maintenance of a
miscellaneous sort plus detailed directions towards all shebaits and trustees
are telling against absolute debutter. Since the expenses for the poojas cover
only a small part of the total income, a correct reading of the will may be to
hold that the corpus vests in the trustees, subject to an interest being
created in the deity to the extent of the share of the income reasonably
necessary for the pooja and residence of the Lord. We see force in these submissions
and shall deal with them presently. Before that we may state the correct legal
approach as set out by Mukherjea in his Tagore Law lectures:
"Even when a deal of dedication is not
fictitious or benami the provisions of the deed might show that the benefit
intended for the deity was very small or of a nominal character. If the gift to
the deity is wholly illusory there is no Debutter 494 in the eye of law, but
there are cases where a question arises on the construction of the document
itself, whether the endowment created was only a partial one meaning thereby
that the dedicated property did not actually vest in the idol, but the latter
enjoyed a charge upon the secular property of the founder, given to his heir or
other relations, for the expenses of its worship. I will discuss this matter
separately under the second head. I may only state here that where there is an
out and out dedication to an idol, the reservation of a moderate portion of the
income of the endowed estate for the remuneration of the shebait would not
invalidate the endowment either as a whole or to the extent of the income so
served. In Jadu Nath v. Thakur Sitaramji (44 I.A. 187) there was a dedication
of the entire property of the founder to the idol, and the direction given was
that half of the income was to be applied for the worship of the idol and
repairs of the temple, and the other half was to go for the upkeep of the
managers. Their Lordships of the Judicial Committee in holding the gift as a
valid Debutter observed as follows :--"The deed ought to be read just as
it appears, and there is no reason why it should not be so construed as meaning
simply what the language say% a gift for the maintenance of the idol and the
temple, under which the idol is to take the property, and for the rest, the
family are to be the administrators and managers and to be remunerated with
half the income of the property. If the income of the property had been large a
question might have been 'raised, in the circumstances as throwing some doubt
upon the integrity of the settlor's intentions, but as the entire income is
only 800 rupees a year, it is obvious that the payment to these ladies is of
the most trifling kind and certainly not an amount which one could expect in a
case of this kind." Following this decision it was held by the Calcutta
High Court in Chandi v. Dulal (30 CMN 930) that a provision for remuneration of
the Shebaits with half of the income of the Debutter property (which proved to
be small sum)as well as their residence in the Thakurbari were quite compatible
with an absolute endowment. You should bear in mind in this connection, that
when a property is absolutely dedicated to a deity, it is not necessary that
every farthing of the income should be spent for the worship of the idol
itself. It is quite within the competence of a settlor to provide that the
surplus income should be spent for the charitable objects e.g. feeding o] the
poor. Sadavart or entertainment of pilgrims and guests is often found to be an
adjunct of a public Debutter. In the case of Monohar Mukherji v. Bhupendra Nath
Mukherjee (37 CWN 29 FB) there was a provision in the deed of dedication that
the surplus income of the endowment should be spent upon maintenance of
childless widow 495 of the family and construction of roads and excavation of
the tanks for public use, and these directions, it was held, did not make the
dedication incomplete.
(pp. 129-130) (Underscoring supplied with a
purpose) The demarcating line between absolute and partial debutter is drawn by
the author thus:
"Where the dedication made by settlor in
favour of an idol covers the entire beneficial interest which he had in the
property, the Debutter is an absolute or complete Debutter. Where however, some
proprietary or pecuniary right or interest in the property is either undisposed
of or is reserved for the settlor's family or relations, a case of partial
dedication arises. In a partial dedication the deity does not become the owner
of the dedicated property but is in the position of a charge holder in respect
of the same. A charge is credited on the property and there is an obligation on
the holder to apply a portion of the income for the religious purposes
indicated by the settlor.
The property does not become extra-commercium
like Debutter property, strictly Speaking so called, but is alienable subject
to the charge and descends according to the ordinary rules of inheritance. It
can be attached and sold in execution of decree against the holder. Whoever
gets the property however takes it burdened with the charge or religious trust.
In Dasaratha Rami Reddy v.
Subba Rao (1957 SCR 1122) it was observed by
the Supreme Court that the question whether a dedication was complete or
partial must depend on whether the settlor intended that his title should be
completely extinguished and transferred to the trust, that in ascertaining that
intention regard must be had to the terms of the document as a whole and that
the use of the word 'trust' though of some help in determining such intention
was not decisive of the matter.
It sometimes happens that the settlor merely
provides for the perfomance of certain religious services or charities from out
of the income of properties specified, and the, question arises whether in such
cases the specified properties themselves form the subject-matter of
dedication. Where the entire income from the properties or a substantial
portion thereof is directed to be applied, or is required for such purposes,
then the property itself must be held to have been absolutely dedicated for
those purposes.
Where, however, after applying the income for
the purposes specified, there still remains a substantial portion thereof
undisposed of, then the dedication must be held to be partial and the
properties 496 will continue to be held in private ownership, subject to a
charge in favour of the charities mentioned?' (p. 134-135) Mr Sen cited several
decisions which are more appropriate to a contest between shebaits and heirs
and do not directly bear on rival considerations decisive of the absolute or
partial nature of a debutter and so we do not burden this judgment with those
many citations but may refer to a few.
In Har Narayan(1) the Judicial Committee was
dealing with a case where a dispute was between the heirs and the shebaits and
it was held that "although a will provides that the property of the
testator 'shall be considered to be the property of a certain idol, the further
provisions such as that the residue after defraying the expenses of the temples
'shall be used by our legal heirs to meet their own expenses', and the
circumstances, such as that in the ceremonies to be performed wore fixed by the
will and would absorb only a small proportion 01 the total income, my indicate
that the intention was that the heirs should take the property subject to a
charge for the performance of the religious purpose named." Granting the
creation of a debutter, the telling tests to decide as between an absolute and
partial debutter cannot necessarily be gathered from this ruling. On the other
hand, this very ruling emphasized that a substantial part of the income was to
go to the legal heirs to meet their own expenses and that circumstances
deflected the decision.
Moreover. Lord Shew of Dunfermline, there
observed:
"The case (jadu Nath Singh: 44 I.A.
187) merely illustrates the inexpediency of
laying down a fixed and. general rule applicable to the construction of
settlements varying in terms and applying to estates varying in
situation." (p. 149) The observations of this Court in Charusila
Dasi(2)--a case dealing with the question of legislative competency on the
constitutionality of the Bihar Hindu Religions Trusts Actseem to suggest that
the establishment of a hospital for Hindu females and a charitable dispensary
for patients of any religion or creed were consistent with the creation of a
religious and charitable trust.
The crux of the matter, agitated before us,
is the determination of the true intention of the testator and this has to
gathered from the name used, the recitals made and the surrounding
circumstances. From a bestowal of reflection on the subject and appraisal in
the light (1) L.R. 48 I.A. 143. (2) [1959] Supp.2 S.C.R. 601.
497 of the then conditions, sentiments and
motivations of the author, we are inclined to the view that Raja Mullick, the
maker of the will, dedicated as debutter to his Maker and Thakoor the entire
estate, saddling the human agents or shebaits with duty to apply the income for
godly and near godly uses and for reward of the shebaits and for their happily
living. Of course, he had horses and carriages and other items to make life
enjoyable. Naturally, his behest covered the obligation to keep these costly
things in good condition and regular use. The impact on the mind, if one reads
the provisions reclining in a chair and lapsing into the mood of the maker of
the will, is that he gave all he did to his Thakoor, as he unmincingly said,
and thus dedicated to create an absolute debutter. The various directions are
mostly either religious or philanthropic but not so remote as to be incongruous
with dedication to an idol or creation of a debutter. The quantum of
expenditure on the various items is not so decisive of the character of the
debutter as absolute or partial as the accent on and subjective importance of
the purposes, in the setting of the totality of commands and cherishments. His
soulful wishes were for the religious and charitable objects and the other
directions were secondary in his estimate. Not counting numbers nor computing
eXpenses, marginally relevant though they are, but feeling the pulse of his
passion to do godly good and promote public delight, that delights the spirit
of his testament. Essentially, Raja Rajendra Mullick gave away his estate to
his Thakoor and created an absolute debutter. He obligated the managers of the
debutter with responsibility to discharge certain secular but secondary behests
including benefit to family members, their residence and transportation.
How then do we reconcile such a conclusion
with the many points forcefully urged by Shri B. Sen and averted to earlier ?
We think that the expressions 'shebaits and trustees', 'shebaits or trustees',
'shebaits' 'trustees', and 'trusts' were indiscriminately used, indifferent to
sharp legal semantics and uncertain of the precise import of these English
legal terms in the Indian context. More, an English solicitors familiar legal
diction super-imposed on an unfamiliar Indian debutter, rather than an exercise
in ambiguity or deliberate dubiety, explains the odd expressions in the will.
The author merely intended to dedicate to Sree Jagannathji and manage through
shebaits. Of course, the reference to the Board of Trustees, the majority vote
and the like, strike a discordant note but the preponderant intent is what we
have held it is.
The magnitude of the expenditure on the
items, secular and sacred, may vaguely affect the conclusion but cannot
conclusively decide the issue. The religious uses related to Sree Jagannathji,
the Lord of the Universe, cannot be narrowly restricted to rituals but must be
spread out to embrace universal good, especially when we read the mind of a
Hindu highly evolved and committed to a religion whose sweep is vasudhaiva
kudumbakam (All creation is His family).
The blurred lines between the spiritual and
the secular, in the context of this ease, do not militate against our construction.
We are not unmindful of the stress Shri B.
Sen placed on the passage in B.K. Mukherjea which we may extract:
498 "But it happens in some cases that
the property dedicated is very large, and the religious ceremonies which are
expressly prescribed by the founder cannot and do not exhaust the entire
income. In such cases some portion of the beneficial interest may be construed
as undisposed of and cannot but vest as secular property in the heirs of the
founder. There are cases again where although the document purports, on the
face of it, to be an out and out dedication of the entire property to the
deity, yet a scrutiny of the actual provisions reveals the fact that the donor
did not intend to give the entire interest to the deity, but reserved some
portion of the property or its profits for the benefit of his family relations.
In all such cases the Debutter is partial and incomplete and the dedicated
property does not vest in the deity as a juridical person. It remains with the
grantees or secular heirs of the founder subject to a trust or charge for the
religious uses. The earliest pronouncement of the law on the subject is to be
found in the decision of the Judicial Committee in Sonatun Bysack v.
Juggutsoondaree (8 M.I.A. 66) which was followed and applied in the subsequent
case of Ashutosh v. Durga (L.R. 6 I,A. 182) ." Sonatun Bysack, referred to
by the learned author, dealt with a case where a Hindu, by his will, gave his
whole estate to the family, deity; he directed that the properties should never
be divided but that the sons and grandsons in succession would enjoy 'the
surplus proceeds only'. There were other kindred directions. The Judicial
Committee held that the bequest to the idol was not an absolute gift:
"*A reference to the second, third and
fifth clauses of the will' so runs the judgment 'leads us to the conclusion
that 'although the will purports to begin with an absolute gift in favour of
the idol, it is plain that the testator contemplated that there was to be some
distribution of the, property according as events might turn out;
and that he did not intend to give the property
absolutely to the idol seems to their Lordships to be clear from the directions
which are contained in the third clause, that after the expenses of the idol
are paid, the surplus shall be accumulated; and still more so from the fifth
'clause by which the testator has provided for whatever surplus should remain
out of the interest of the property, the expenses of the idol being first
deducted.
It is plain that the testator looking at the
expenses of the idol was not contemplating an absolute and entire gift in
favour of the 'idol'. On a construction of the entire will it was held that
there was a gift to the/our sons of the testator and their offspring in the
male line as a joint family, and the four 'sons were entitled to the surplus of
the property after providing for the performance of the ceremonies and
festivals of the idol and the provisions in the will for maintenance." (p
136---137, Mukherjea) 499 The cardinal point to notice is what Pande Har
Narayan (48 I.A. 143 emphasized:
"The question whether the idol itself
shall be considered beneficiary, subject to a charge in favour of the heirs or
specified relatives of the testator for their upkeep, or that, on the other
hand, these heirs shall be considered the true beneficiaries of the property,
subject to a charge for the upkeep, worship and expenses of the idol, is a question
which can only be settled by a conspectus of the entire provisions of the
will." (p. 137, Mukherjea) If, on a consideration of the totality of
terms, on sifting the more essential from the less essential purposes, on
sounding the depth of the donor's wishes to find whether his family or his
deity were the primary beneficiaries and on taking note of the language used,
if the vesting is in the idol an absolute debutter can be spell out. So
considered, if the grant is to the heirs with a charge on the income for the
performance of pujas, the opposite inference is inevitable. Before us, there is
no dispute between the heirs and the idol. The point mooted is about the
creation of an English trust, an unconventional legal step where the dedication
is to a deity. On a full study of the will as a whole, we think that this
benignant Bengalee's testament, draped though in Victorian verbal haberdashory,
had, on legal auscultation, the Indian heart-beats of Hindu religious culture,
and so scanned, his will intended vasting the properties in absolute debutter.
The idol was, therefore, the legal owner of the whole and liable to be assessed
as such.
The respondent, however, has a second string
to his bow. Assuming an absolute debutter, there is still many a slip between
the lip and the cup, between the income and exigibility to tax. For, while,
ordinarily, income accrues in the hands of the owner of property and is taxable
as such, it is quite on the cards that in view of the special provisions in the
deed of grant certain portions of the income may be tied up for other purposes
or persons and may not reach the grantee as his income. By an over-riding
charge, sums of money the balance of income may legally be received by the
donee as his income. The argument of the respondent is that even if the estate
vested in the deity, an assessable entity in our secular system as held in
Jogendra Nath(1) still all the amounts meant to be spent on the shebaits and
the members of the family, on the upkeep of horses and carriages and repair of
buildings etc., were charged on the income and by, paramount provisions,
directed to these uses. These sums did not and could not come into the hands of
the deity as its income and could not be taxed as such.
If the 'shebaits and trustees' collected the
income by way of rents and interests, to the extent of these other
disbursements they received the amounts merely as collectors of rents etc; not
as receivers of income. Such amounts were free from income-tax in the hands of
the idol.
(1) 74 I.T.R. 33.
500 The principle we have set out above has
been blessed by a uniform catena of cases. The leading ruling on the subject is
by the Judicial Committee in Bejoy Singh Dudhuria(1). Lord Macmillan there observed
as follows:
"When the Act by s. 3 subjects to charge
'all income' of an individual it is what reaches the individual an income which
it is intended to charge. In the present case the decree of the court by
charging the appellant's whole resources with a specific payment to his
stepmother has to that extent diverted his income from him and has directed it
to his step-mother; to that extent what he receives for her is not his income.
It is not a case of the application by the appellant of part of his income in a
particular way, it is rather the allocation of a sum out of his revenue before
it becomes income in his hands." (p. 138-139) A case in contrast is P.C.
Mullick v. Commissioner of Income tax(2). There "The testator died in
October, 1931. By his will he appointed the appellants (and another) his
executors. He directed them to pay his debts out of the income of his property,
and to pay Rs. 10,000/out of the income of his property on the occasion of his
'Addya Shradh' for expenses in connection therewith to the person entitled to
perform the Shradh.
He also directed his executors to pay out of
the income of his property the costs of taking out probate of his will After
conferring out of income benefits on the second wife and his daughter and (out
of the estate) benefits on the sons, if any, of his daughter, and after
providing for the payment out of income 'gradually' of divers sums to some
persons, and certain annuities to others, he bequeathed all his remaining
property (in the events which happened) to a son taken in adoption after his
death by his wife, viz., one Ajit Kumar Ghosh who is still a minor." The
payment of the Shradh expenses and the costs of probate were payments made out
of the income of the estate coming to the hands of the appellants as executors,
and in pursuance of an obligation imposed by their testator. It is not a case
like the case of Raja Bejoy Singh Dudhuria v. Commissioner of Income Tax,
Calcutta in which a portion income was by an overriding title diverted from the
person who would otherwise have received it. It is simply a case in which the
executors having received the whole income of the estate apply a portion in a
particular way pursuant to the directions of their testator, in whose shoes
they stand." (1) (1933) 1 LT.R. 135. (2) (1938) 6 I.T.R. 206.
501 In Commissioner of Income-tax v. Sitaldas
Tirathdas(1) this Court referred to many reported decisions some of which we
have just mentioned. Mr. Justice Hidayatullah, speaking for the Court, summed
up the rule thus (at p. 374):
"in our opinion, the true test is
whether the amount sought to he deducted, in truth, never reached the assessee
as his income. Obligations, no doubt, there are in every case, but it is the
nature of the obligation which is the decisive fact. There is a difference
between an amount which a person is obliged to apply out of his income and an
amount which by the nature of the obligation cannot be said to be a part of the
income of the assessee. Where by the obligation income is diverted before it
reaches the assessee, it is deductible; but where the income is required to be
applied to discharge an obligation after such income reaches the assessee, the
same consequence in law does not follow. It is the first kind of payment which
can truly he executed and not the second.
The second payment is merely an obligation to
pay another a portion of one's own income, which has been received and is since
applied. The first is a case in which the income never reaches the assessee,
who, even if he were to collect it, does so, not as part of his income, but for
and on behalf of the person to whom it is payable. in our opinion, the present
case is one in which the wife and children of the assessee who continued to be
members of the family received a portion of the income of the assessee, after
the assessee had received the income as his own. The case is one of application
of a portion of the income to discharge an obligation and not a case in which
by an overriding charge the assessee became only a collector of another's
income." The High Court, in a laconic paragraph, dismissed this contention
but Shri Sen submitted that there was merit in it and had to he accepted. We
agree with the High Court because the terms in which the directions are couched
do not divert the income at the source but merely command the shebaits to apply
the income received from the debutter properties for specified purposes. We may
quote to illustrate:
"I direct that the shebaits and trustees
shall out of the Debutter funds maintain and keep a sufficient number of
carriages and horses for their use and comfort and that of their families and
after providing for the purposes aforesaid out of the Debutter income I direct
the shebaits and Trustees to pay to each of the shebaits for the time being who
shall actually take part in the performance of the duties of the Shebaits and
the execution of the Trusts of this fund as and by way of remuneration for
their services the sum of Rupees Five hundred a month .... " (1) 41 I.T.R.
367.
502 "I direct that the widows of my
three deceased sons Greendro, Sorrendro and Jogendra who assist in the work of
preparing articles of offerings to the Thakoors and for the feeding and distribution
to the poor and all the widows of shebaits hereby appointed and future shebaits
who shall in like manner assist in the said work shall receive a remuneration
of the sum of Rupees fifty each a month from the income of the debutter
fund." So the shebaits first got the income and then apply it in conformity
with the directives given in the will. The rulings relied on by both sides do
not shake the position we have taken and may not merit discussion.
These conclusions we have drawn mean that the
appeals have to be allowed and the reference answered in favour of the Revenue
and against the assessee.. Accordingly we answer Questions Nos.1 and 2,
referred at the instance of the assessee, against him and the other two
questions referred at the request of the Revenue, affirmatively. While answering
the above questions we may state that all income earmarked for religious and
charitable purposes conforming to s. 4(3)(i) read with Explanation to s. 4(3)
of the 1922 Act shall not be included in the total income. It is also clear
that whatever income was agreed to be excluded in terms of the concession made
by the Revenue in the High Court shah remain excluded.
The fluctuating fortunes of this litigation
have been occasioned by the discordant notes struck by the different clauses of
the will and the inevitable element of confusion injected by the religious,
charitable and secular wishes of the Hindu testator being translated into
formal, legal terms by an English solicitor in the latter half of the last
century. He, therefore, direct that the parties do bear their own costs
throughout.
P.H.P. Appeal allowed.
Back
