CIT KERALA Vs. K GEORGE THOMAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Cochin Bench, has referred to this Court under S.66(1) of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1922, the following two questions for decision;

(2.) The assessee publishes a Malayalam daily newspaper by name Kerala Dhwani Till 1953, he was a lecturer in History and Political Science in a college at Kottayam. In 1953, he got a scholarship for higher studies in the United States and he was there from 1953 to 1957 during which period he took his Ph.D. degree. He returned to India by the end of 1957, and then started the newspaper, Kerala Dhwani, in August 1959. According to the assessee, during his stay in the United States and after his return to India, be was engaged in a movement called India Gospel Mission, for the spread of religion and for crusading against the forces of atheism and the political ideologies which favoured atheism. He has further stated that his friends in America and those who believed in the case which he was espousing were sending him donations and helping the movement. These donations were being banded over or were being collected by the Indian Christian Crusade U.S.A. and were being remitted to him by the crusade from the U.S.A. through banks in India.

(3.) From the above source, the assessee admittedly received a sum of Rs. 2,90,220 during the accounting period relevant to the assessment year 1960-61 and a sum of Rs. 3,63,750/- during the accounting period relevant to the assessment year 1961-62. The Income Tax Officer found that these amounts came from the U.S.A. He, however, rejected the contention of the assessee that they were not taxable for the five reasons which the Tribunal has extracted in Para.2 of the statement of the case. Dealing with the assessee's appeal, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner held that the assessee had not explained the source of the credits made in his accounts relating to the above mentioned amounts and therefore applied the principle of the decision in A. Govindarajulu Mudaliar v. Commissioner of Income Tax, Hyderabad ((1958) 34 ITR 807) and taxed the amounts as the income of the assessee. In further appeal before the Tribunal, the Tribunal found that the source of the credits was the remittances from the Indian Christian Crusade in U.S.A. The Tribunal then posed the question for decision in these terms;