COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. RADHASWAMI SATSANGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal has referred the following question for our opinion :

(2.) The assessee is the Radhaswami Satsang, Agra. The faith, Radhaswami was founded by one Sri Swami Shiv; Dayal Singh in 1869. According to the tenets of this faith the deity is represented on this earth by a human being who is called the Sant Satguru. The first Sant Satguru was Sri Shiv Dayal Singh, popularly known as " Swami Ji Maharaj". The second Sant Satguru (1878-1898) was Rai Bahadur Salig Ramanand ; he is popularly known as "Hazoor Maharaj ". The third Sant Satguru (1898-1907) was Pandit Brahma Sankar Misra, popularly known as "Maharaj Sahib". These first three gurus are regarded as the true exponents of the creed by all the followers of this faith. The Satsang which was started in the said manner grew in numbers and from the offerings made by the devotees to the Sant Satguru for the time being, the funds accumulated, which were partly utilised for the construction and maintenance of the shrines of the deceased Sant Satgurus and for places of worship and residence of this community and partly for the other objects of this faith. During the time of the third Sant Satguru somewhere in 1902, the members of the faith met together and established a central administrative council defining its constitution and bye-laws and vesting all the movable and immovable properties therein. All this was done under the direction of Maharaj Sahib, the third Sant Satguru. A document declaring the constitutional powers of the central council seems to have come into being in June, 1904. The said body was designated as the Radhaswami Trust. Some of its material provisions were as follows :

(3.) A trust deed was executed by certain members of the central council some time in October, 1904. The objects of the trust were ; "The trustees named above or those that may be appointed hereafter to succeed them, all of whom will hereafter be called trustees, shall collect, preserve, administer, and if necessary, alienate the properties, movable or immovable, that have been or may hereafter be dedicated to the supreme being, Radhaswami Dayal, or that may be acquired for or presented to the Radhaswami Satsang and its branches, in accordance with such directions as may, from time to time, be issued in this behalf by the said council or the Sant Satguru for the time being, if any, who is recognised as the representative of the supreme being, Radhaswami Dayal, and as such is the sole master of all movable and immovable properties of the aforesaid Satsang, provided that Samadhis and places of public worship of the Radhaswami Satsang shall at no time be alienated. By clause relating to bye-laws it was provided as follows :