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Showing contexts for: charitable trust objects in Commissioner Of Wealth-Tax vs Hyderabad Race Club on 14 October, 1977Matching Fragments
bers' club which comes into existence for the purpose of providing certain amenities to the members without any business element. " The court held that, in any view of the matter, the entire income was liable to tax.
12. In yet another case, South Indian Athletic Association Ltd. v. CIT [1977] 107 ITR 108, the Madras High Court held that the income of the South Indian Athletic Association Ltd., the objects of which were in part charitable and in part non-charitable, was not entitled to exemption from tax. The Bench observed that " public benefit is essential in order that there may be a charitable purpose. Promotion of intercourse among the members of the association cannot be considered to be a charitable purpose. The members of the association could apply the income to any of the objects some of which were non-charitable in the instant case. If there were several objects of a trust some of which are charitable and some non-charitable, and the trustees in their discretion could apply the income to any of the objects, the whole trust must fail and no part of the income would be exempt from tax and as, in the instant case, even assuming that there was a charitable purpose in the promotion of athletic sports and games still the exemption was not available as there were other non-charitable purposes. "
16. In In re The Trustees of the ' Tribune ' [ 1939] 7 ITR 415 (PC), the property held in trust for publishing a newspaper, the income of which, after defraying the expenses of the press and newspaper, was held to be in trust for charitable purposes. It was held, reversing the judgment of the High Court, that the object of the settlor was to supply the province with an organ of educated public opinion and this was prima facie an object of general public utility. Though a trust for conducting a newspaper as a mere vehicle for the promotion of a particular political or fiscal opinion may not be within the exemption, where the object is to disseminate news and ventilate opinion on matters of public interest, the fact that the paper may have, or may acquire, a particular political complexion would not take away its exemption. Here the question whether its income was utilised wholly for a public purpose of a charitable nature and whether it would still be entitled to exemption if some of the objects of the trust were to be deemed to be objects of a non-charitable nature, did not arise for consideration.
17. In Sole Trustee, Loka Shikshana Trust v. CIT [1975] 101 ITR 234, the Supreme Court dealing with a clause of the trust deed of the Loka Sbikshana Trust which provided that the object of the trust shall be to educate the people of India in general and of Karnataka in particular by-
(a) establishing, conducting and helping directly or indirectly institutions calculated to educate the people by spread of knowledge on all matters of general interest and welfare ; (b) founding and running reading rooms and libraries and keeping and conducting printing houses and publishing or aiding the publication of books, booklets, leaflets, pamphlets, magazines, etc., in Karnataka and other languages, all these activities being started, conducted and carried on with the object of educating the people; (c) supplying the Kannada speaking public with an organ or organs of educated public opinion and conducting journals in Kannada and other languages, for the dissemination of useful news and information and for the ventilation of public opinion on matters of general public utility, and (i) helping directly or indirectly societies and institutions which have all or any of the aforesaid objects in view and (ii) which empowered the trustee to utilise the moneys and property of the trust for any of the purposes of the trust in such manner as may appear proper, held that the object of the trust was not " education " within the meaning of Section 2(15) but an object of general public utility, that, however, the publication of newspapers and journals involved the carrying on of an activity for profit and the income of the trust was, therefore, not exempt from tax. Though some of the activities permitted under the trust deed involved the activity which did not secure any profit as well, inasmuch as some of the objects were intended for earning some profit and income, the trust was already liable to pay tax. In the course of the judgment it was pointed out that where the predominant object of the trust is of a charitable nature, the income of such trust would not be liable to tax. It would become liable to tax only in view of the amendment made in the I. T. Act in 1961 which made the provision more stringent by insisting that the trustee should not have indulged in any activity for the purposes of making any profit. The amendment reads as follows :