K VASUDEVAN Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE assessee is aggrieved by the order of the Tribunal, the order being one relating to the assessment years 1981-82 and 1983-84 by which the assessee's claim for exemption under section 4(b) of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act, was rejected by the Tribunal. THE Tribunal held that it appeared to it that the properties are not held in trust by the assessee. That constituted the basis for rejecting the petitioner's claim.

(2.) THE order so made by the Tribunal, runs counter to what the State itself had accepted, viz., that the assessee was in fact a trust. THE assessee is described in the order of the Assistant Commissioner as a trust. THE Assistant Commissioner declined to grant relief to the assessee on the ground that the income of the trust is liable to tax "according to the principles in force". That was the only reason given by the appellate authority for denying the exemption. It was not contended before the Tribunal by the Revenue that the assessee was not a trust. THE Tribunal, on the other hand, has recorded that the State representative supported the orders of the authorities below. If the assessee is a trust, any agricultural income derived from the property held under trust wholly or partly for charities or religious purposes would be exempted to the same extent to which it is not included in the total income for the purposes of the Income-tax Act, 1961.