(1.) UNDER section 256(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Madras Bench, has referred the following question for the opinion of this court "Whether, on the facts and circumstances of the case, the assessment of the sum of Rs. 13, 000 as income of the assessee is valid and right in law ?" *The assessment relates to late Sri Anantharama Dikshidar, who was an exponent of the epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Performances were being organised all over India and he gave discourses in such performances. Considerable amounts were collected at the time of his discourses, and he was being assessed to income-tax on such receipts from the assessment year 1957-58 onwards. During the assessment year 1964-65, Sri Anantharama Dikshidar celebrated his Sashtiabdapoorthi. On that occasion, there were cash presents to the extent of Rs. 19, 700. The Income-tax Officer estimated a sum of Rs. 6, 700 as presents received by Sri Anantharama Dikshidar from his near relations and he took them to be personal gifts made by such relations as token of their personal esteem for Sri Anantharama Dikshidar. After excluding that amount, he took the balance of Rs. 13, 000 as assessable income and brought it to tax.
(2.) THE appeal filed by the assessee before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner was unsuccessful. THEreafter, the legal representative of Sri Dikshidar who had by then died appealed to the Tribunal. THE contention urged on behalf of the assessee was that the entire payment made on the occasion of the Sashtiabdapoorthi was a personal gift for the personal qualities of Dikshidar and as a token of personal esteem unconnected with any services rendered, so that the inclusion of the sum of Rs. 13, 000 in the assessment was not justified. THE contention urged on behalf of the department was that giving religious discourses was the avocation carried on by the deceased and that the income received had also been assessed as professional income. As regards the disputed sum of Rs. 13, 000 received on the occasion of the Sashtiabdapoorthi, the contention of the department was that it was in token of the appreciation of the services rendered by the assessee as an able exponent of the Vedantic Hindu Philosophy, and, therefore, they are not personal gifts for the personal qualities of the deceased and the inclusion of the sum of Rs. 13, 000 as the income of the deceased was fully justified. THE Tribunal examined these contentions and came to the conclusion that the sum of Rs. 13, 000 was rightly taxed. It is this order of the Tribunal which is the subject-matter of dispute in the form of the question extracted alreadyTHE fact that the assessee was being assessed on the receipts at the time of his performances, whenever given, is not in dispute.