INDIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE C I T KERALA ERNAKULAM Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX WEST BENGAL II CALCUTTA:COCHIN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY COCHIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These four appeals raise but one question, turning on the meaning of 'charitable purpose', as defined in Section 2 (15) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (Act No. XLIII of 1961) (for short, the Act). They may be disposed of by one common judgment, although the two High Courts (Calcutta and Kerala) from where the appeals have come have taken contrary views on the single point in issue.

(2.) What are the bounds set for earning exemption by a combined application of Sec. 11 (1) read with Section 2 (15) of the Act What is the parameter of the legal concept of charitable purpose Are the triune activities, which have yielded income and have been assessed to tax, eligible for exemption as falling within the scope of Section 2 (15) as it now stands These points of law, in the conspectus of facts presented in the case, have been argued in the light of conflicting decisions of the High Court and illumined in part by a very recent pronouncement of this Court in Loka Shikshana Trust v. C.I.T. Mysore Civil Appeals Nos. 2130 and 2131 of 1970, decided on 28-8-1975 = (reported in AIR 1976 SC 10).

(3.) The assessee are the Indian Chamber of Commerce and the Cochin Chambers of Commerce. Their memoranda and articles of association are substantially similar and so the facts in the first case alone need be stated and the question of law discussed with reference to that case only. Hardly any distinction on facts or law which desiderates a separate consideration exists.