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TMI Blog1982 (4) TMI 28X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... founder of the trust, he has committed in writing what the terms of the trust are, in a deed dated June 24, 1968. The deed says that Ved Prakash has no manner of personal interest either in the corpus or in the income of the trust. He holds everything in trust for the Ashram. Every pie the workshop earns is for the Ashram. Ved Prakash keeps nothing for himself, he takes nothing for himself. In the year ended March 31, 1971, the workshop showed a profit of Rs. 10,600. Ved Prakash as trustee claimed that the income was exempt from income-tax. He claimed that the trust was a charitable trust. The ITO held that it was nothing of the kind. He was, however, prepared to treat a part of the workshop income actually turned over to the Ashram as a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he objects of the assessee-trust ? " We may point out that no question is before us as to the propriety of the Tribunal's remand. All the same, we cannot help observing that the remand might well have been saved. We say so because the Ashram's objectives and their charitable nature were never in issue between the parties so far as this case is concerned. They were, on the contrary, non-issue. For, we cannot otherwise explain the grant by the ITO of relief under s. 80G as respects the amounts paid over by the trustee to the Ashram. We, therefore, deem it quite proper to ignore the remand and address ourselves to the question on the footing that our judgment in this reference will effectively conclude the case one way or the other. Mr. Ja ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... out, we only have to read the trust deed to find what it is. For, Ved Prakash who subscribed to that document knew about the trust more than anybody else. And this is how he himself describes its objects in the instrument: " Whereas I am a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and am desirous of benefiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, financially and whereas for the said purpose I have raised money for starting Workshop at Pondicherry ........" It is clear that the trust is not cluttered up with a plurality of objectives. There is but one goal set for the trust, constantly to be reached, and that is, to benefit the Ashram financially. " Benefitting the Ashram financially," we take it, is a nice way of saying that the trust ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ffacement should be regarded as non-charitable, while hospitals and schools run on affluent lines should pass muster as charitable bodies. That, however, must be understood as the law, both under the statute and on the authorities. Mr. Ramu, learned counsel for the trust, urged that the whole tenor of the trust deed points to the trust being an inextricable appendage to the Aurobindo Ashram. He even described it as a mini-Aurobindo Trust. We do not think this is an apt description. The trust, in our judgment, is by no means a branch or an outpost of the Aurobindo complex. The Ashram has no doubt a locus standing under the trust deed. But it is that of a beneficiary under the trust. And we hold that the Ashram's position as a beneficiary s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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