TMI Blog1970 (10) TMI 20X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t in holding that the assessee was entitled to the benefit of exemption provided in section 4(3)(i) of the Act of 1922 and in excluding the property income from the assessment of the assessee ? The assessment year is 1960-61 for which the previous year ended on June 30, 1959. The assessee, M/s. Textile Manufacturers' Association, Amritsar, is a company limited by guarantee and registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1913. It was incorporated in 1936. The assessee owns a building at Amritsar from which it derives rental income. That income was being assessed to tax in the previous years which was not objected to by the assessee but during the course of the proceedings for the assessment year 1960-61, the assessee contended that the rent ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that account the purpose is not rendered any the less an object of general public utility. It may be remembered that promotion and protection of trade, commerce and industry cannot be equated with promotion and protection of activities and interests merely of persons engaged in trade, commerce and industry. " In that case also, the question for determination was whether the rental income from building which the Chamber of Commerce had purchased was exempt from income-tax under section 4(3)(i) of the Act. At page 728, their Lordships observed as under : " In the promotion of trade, commerce and industries of India the public is vitally interested and it by the activities of the assessee that object is achieved, it would be within the mea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ject of public utility which is available to the general public as distinct from any section of the public, and that objects of an association " to benefit works of public utility confined to a section of the public, that is, those interested in commerce " are not objects of general public utility', do not correctly interpret the expression 'objects of general public utility'. The section of the community sought to be benefited must undoubtedly be sufficiently defined and identifiable by some common quality of a public or impersonal nature ; where there is no common quality uniting the potential beneficiaries into a class, it may not be regarded as valid. " The judgment of their Lordships fully covers the case of the assessee in view of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ither the income nor the property of the assessee could be utilised by the members and the objects for which the assessee had been incorporated were for the general public utility, that is, of the textile manufacturers and particularly those who were members of the association. According to the observations made by their Lordships, the general public utility does not mean the mankind at large but also includes a section of the community sought to be benefited if it is sufficiently defined and identifiable by some common quality of a public or impersonal nature. In the present case, the section of the community is sufficiently defined and identifiable as the textile manufacturers of the Province of Punjab, which in 1936, extended from Delhi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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