TMI Blog1985 (9) TMI 2X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... assessee for the assessment years 1960-61 and 1961-62 ? (ii) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was justified in law and had material for holding that the sums of Rs. 2,90,220 and Rs. 3,63,750 are exempt from taxation under section 4(3)(vii) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, for the assessment years 1960-61 and 1961-62, respectively ? " The references relate to the assessment years 1960-61 and 1961-62. The assessee's accounting year was the calendar year. The assessee publishes a Malayalam daily newspaper by name Kerala Dhwani. Till 1953, he was a lecturer in History and Political Science in a College at Kottayam. He had his education in the United States of America during 1953 to 1957. During this period of stay in the U.S.A. he had the privilege of associating himself with the India Gospel Mission in the United States. The India Gospel Mission, it was stated, was collecting money for its working abroad through the Indian Christian Crusade. The assessee was also publishing a religious magazine called " Viswa Deepam ". The magazine was started in January, 1957. The father of the assessee, Shri K. G. Thomas, was the editor of Viswa Deepam ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e year and these were evidently given as aid to the running of the newspaper which was the business carried on by the assessee. (v) The Indian Christian Crusade, U.S.A., which was paying money to the assessee was an enterprise in India established for the furtherance of ideals and objectives similar to theirs. For the aforesaid reasons, the Income-tax Officer held that the so-called donations were payments by way of remuneration for the work done by the assessee in connection with the spreading, in India, of the ideals of the Indian Christian Crusade, U.S.A. The Income-tax Officer came to the conclusion that the amounts paid to the assessee were connected with the business of the assessee and were liable to be taxed as the business income of the assessee. He, therefore, brought to tax Rs. 2,90,220 which had been received during the assessment year. For the next assessment year, the assessee had received similar amounts totalling to Rs. 3,63,750 through the Indian Christian Crusade, U.S.A. For the reasons given in the order of the previous year, the Income-tax Officer treated this amount also as the business income for the assessment year 1961-62 and brought the same to tax. T ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... High Court held that the assessee was very actively and fully occupied with the activities connected with achieving the objects of strengthening faith in God and fighting against atheism and was occupied with this affair. The paper which he published for this purpose was daily coming out with views in support of this mission. Teaching and propagating religion could be an occupation. It was not necessary that its object should be to earn a livelihood. Anything in which a person was engaged systematically could be an occupation or vocation. The next question would be whether receipts could be said to arise from such occupation or vocation. There was link between the activity of the assessee and the payments and the payments were made by those who held similar views as those of the assessee and who were very much interested in the propagation and the acceptance of those views by the general public. The payments were made for the purpose: of helping the assessee to run the paper which was the mouth-piece or medium through which the ideas were to be spread. The connection between the activity of the assessee and the donations was thus intimate. It arose out of the vocation or the occup ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ring at pages 536, 537 and 538 of the said report. It was urged that the burden of proof was wrongly placed by the High Court and oil the facts, that the two circumstances relied on by the High Court did not establish that certain money was given to the assessee as remuneration for services and, as such, it could not be held that the person concerned was assessable to tax. It was urged that the High Court wrongly placed the burden of proof upon the assessee. But on the facts and in the circumstances of this case, the conclusion recorded by the High Court in the instant case was borne out from the facts on record. The observations of this court referred to above cannot be of much assistance to the assessee. The case which is most apposite to the facts of the instant case is decision of this court in the case of Krishna Menon v. CIT [1959] 35 ITR 48. There, after retirement from Government service, the appellant therein was spending his time in studying and teaching Vedanta philosophy. L, who was one of his disciples, used to come from London at regular intervals to Trivandrum where the appellant resided and stay there for a few months at a time and attend his discourses, and so ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to the assessee from the carrying on of the vocation by the assessee and these were not casual and non-recurring. These were taxable. These facts were found by the Income-tax Officer. These facts, not in so many terms, but essentially found by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, and were reiterated by the Tribunal and the High Court accepted these findings of fact and answered the question accordingly. Reliance was also placed on the decisions of the Gujarat High Court in the case of Acharya D. V. Pande v. CIT [1965] 56 ITR 152 and CIT v. Shri Girdharram Hariram Bhagat [1985] 154 ITR 10, decisions of the Bombay High Court in the case of Maharaj Shri Govindlalji Ranchhodlalji v. CIT [1958] 34 ITR 92 and H. H. Maharani Shri Vijaykuverba Saheb of Morvi v. CIT [1963] 49 ITR 594, decision of the Madras High Court in the case of S. A. Ramakrishnan v. CIT [1978] 114 ITR 253 and decision of the Delhi High Court in the case of Siddhartha Publications (P.) Ltd. v. CIT [1981] 129 ITR 603, dealing with certain facts and circumstances where income could be said to be taxable. From all these decisions, two facts emerge. The burden is on the Revenue to establish that the receipt is of a rev ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as part of their business. A customer sleeping in the inn was injured by the fall of a chimney, and recovered damages and costs against the company for the injury, which was due to the negligence of the company's servants. The question was whether the amounts paid as damages could be claimed as a deduction from the business of carrying on the activities as an inn-keeper. The Lord Chancellor observed at page 452 of the report as follows : " I think only such losses can be deducted as are connected with in the sense that they are really incidental to the trade itself. They cannot be deducted if they are mainly incidental to some other vocation or fall on the trader in some character other than that of a trader. The nature of the trade is to be considered. To give an illustration, losses sustained by railway company in compensating passengers for accidents in travelling might be deducted. On the other hand, if a man kept a grocer's shop for keeping which a house is necessary, and one of the window shutters fell upon and injured a man walking in the street, the loss arising thereby to the grocer ought not to be deducted. Many cases might be put near the line and no degree of ingenuit ..... 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