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Shri Prakash Narain, Accontant Member

1. The assessee is a lady doctor in Kanpur. She was the owner of a property situated at 16/72 Civil Lines, Kanpur. She was running a nursing home and hospital in this building.

2. The assessee founded a public charitable trust in the name of 'Chandra-kanta Jawaharlal Public Charitable Trust'. As a settlor she settled a sum of Rs. 1,100 on the trust which amount was transferred to the trustees. The trust had eight trustees. A deed of declaration was also executed by her on 18-4-1976 by which the trust came into existence. The objects of the trust admittedly were charitable in nature. Although the ITO had disputed their nature but his objection was overruled by the Commissioner (Appeals). Thus, admittedly the objects are charitable in nature. Clause 6 of the above declaration also states that the trustees were to hold trust property wholly for the charitable objects mentioned in the declaration. The trust was also registered by the Commissioner under Section 1 2A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ('the Act') on 28-9-1979. It was also granted a certificate on the same date, i.e., 28-9-1979 under Section 80G of the Act by the Commissioner. The trust also maintained regular books of account which were duly audited.

7. The assessee is now in appeal before us. The learned counsel for the assessee Dr. R.C. Vaish narrated the history of the trust and the endowment made by the assessee in respect of the aforesaid property. He pointed out that while the trust was created on 18-4-1976 with a corpus of Rs. 1,100 only, the dedication or endowment of the property itself was made on 1-4-1977 and that the dedication was reduced to writing through a declaration dated 7-4-1977. He submitted that there was no dispute that the objects of the trust were charitable or that it had been genuinely constituted and was also registered with the Sub-Registrar, Kanpur, on 5-8-1976. He also emphasised the fact that it had been registered by the Commissioner under Section 12A and had also been granted a certificate under Section 80G on 28-9-1979. The certificate under Section 80G was, of course, for the period 15-9-1977 to 31-3-1980 which partly covers the period Under consideration. He also pointed out that the mutation of the property in question had been carried out in the name of the trust on 5-10-1983 as was evidenced by the Kanpur City Corporation letter dated 10-11-1983 appearing at page 13 of the paper book submitted by the assessee. He further pointed out that a decree had also been passed on 10-9-1985 by the Kanpur Civil Judge in a declaratory suit in Manzoor Alam versus the assessee by which it was declared that the aforesaid property was in the ownership of the said trust. This decree was, of course, not available at the time the proceedings were going on before the lower authorities.