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TMI Blog1965 (4) TMI 13X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a scheme settled by the Madras High Court on March 16, 1955. Under the scheme the management of the administration of the affairs of the said Durgha vests hereditarily in 8 trustees called nattamaigars, who constitute a board of trustees. The said board of trustees shall from among themselves elect one as a managing trustee and he shall hold office for a term of 3 years. The managing trustee shall at the end of each Fasli prepare a balance-sheet verified by the manager and ascertain the net amount available for payment to kasupangudars, who are the descendants of Saiyed Muhammed Eusoof, the foster-son of the saint. The managing trustee shall declare the amount due to each of the kasupangu (share) and shall allocate the amount to each kusup ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on a certificate of fitness granted by the High Court, has preferred the present appeals against the said order. The learned Additional Solicitor-General, appearing for the revenue, contended that the nattamaigars being trustees, the properties of the Durgha vested in them and, therefore, they or the managing trustee administered the trust properties in their own right and not on behalf of the kasupangudars and hence section 41 of the Act did not apply, with the result the Income-tax Officer had rightly assessed the surplus income in the hands of the trustees as an association of persons. Mr. A. V. Viswanatha Sastri, learned counsel for the assessee-respondent, argued, on the other hand, that the nattamaigars of the Durgha were not tru ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iable upon and recoverable from the person on whose behalf such income, profits or gains are receivable, and all the provisions of this Act shall apply accordingly." Under this section the income of properties receivable by the enumerated persons for the benefit of others is liable to be assessed to tax in their hands in the like manner and to the same amount as it would be leviable upon and recoverable from the person or persons on whose behalf such income is receivable. This section centres on the basic fact that the person in whose hands the income is assessable shall be entitled to receive the same on behalf of any person ; if he is not so entitled, the provisions of the section cannot be invoked. So, it is contended that, as the prop ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ars were trustees in whom the properties of the Durgha vested, they should be deemed to have received the income only on behalf of the kasupangudars in definite shares. The same conclusion will be reached even if the problem was approached from a different angle. In the well-known decision of the Privy Council in Vidya Varuthi Thirtha v. Balusami Ayyar the inappropriateness of the use of the expression " trustee " to the manager of a Hindu or Mahommedan religious endowments was brought out. Therein their Lordships observed : " Neither under the Hindu law nor in the Mahommedan system is any property 'conveyed' to a shebait or a mutawalli, in the case of a dedication. Nor is any property vested in him : whatever property he holds for the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and not on behalf of the kasupangudars. A careful reading of the relevant part of the scheme does not countenance this argument. Clause 3 of the scheme, which is the material clause, reads : " The management and administration of the affairs of the Nagore Durgha at Nagore, Tanjore District, and other thakias and shrines connected therewith (mentioned in schedule A hereunder) and all properties--movables and immovables--which belong to or have been or may hereafter be given, dedicated, endowed thereto, shall subject to the provisions thereof vest hereditarily in the eight trustees or nattamaigars of the Durgha who shall constitute the board of trustees. Each trustee or nattamaigar is entitled to hold office for life, and after him the trus ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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