MOHD ABDUL JALIL KHAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Revision Board under the Agricultural Income-tax Act has referred the following question for our opinion :

(2.) As mentioned by the Revision Board, a specific provision has been made for assessing the agricultural income of a trust governed by Section 5, Muslim Wakf Validating Act, 1913 commonly known as Wakf Alal-aulad. Prima facie, in the absence of any specific provision, the income derived from such a trust would, after distribution between the beneficiaries, be the income of each beneficiary and should be assessed as his income. Section 9, Agricultural Income-tax Act, however, lays down a special principle for assessing income derived from such a trust directing that this income shall be assessed as income of one individual. The provision under Section 9 thus indicates that, irrespective of the fact as to who is to enjoy that income, the assessment of that income is to be made as one unit treating it as income of one individual. In such circumstances, it would not be the intention of the Legislature that that income should be treated as the personal income of the Mutawalli and added to his other personal income. There may be cases where the Mutawalli is not a beneficiary at all. He would then hold the income only temporarily for the purpose of distributing it to the beneficiaries. He himself would derive no benefit at all from the income. This being the position, it could not have been intended that that income should be added to his personal income and assessed to agricultural income-tax treating it as his personal income. The language of Section 9, Agricultural Income-tax Act, indicates that the income of a trust referred to in that section, is to be assessed as the income of a separate individual. Had it been the intention of the Legislature that it should be treated as the income of the Mutawalli and added to his personal income, specific provision could easily have been made not only to the effect that the income was to be assessed as the income of an individual but making it clear that the income is to be assessed as income of the Mutawalli himself. We, consequently, agree with the opinion expressed by the Revision Board that, in the case of a trust governed by Section 9, Agricultural Income-tax Act, the income received from the trust property should be assessed separately j from the income received as his personal income by the Mutawalli.

(3.) In this connection we may take notice of one other aspect. A Mutawalli of a trust referred to in Section 5, Muslim Waqf Validating Act, 1913, does not stand on the same footing as an ordinary trust governed by Trust Act. In the case of a trust governed by the Trust Act, the trust property as well as the income derived from the trust property vest in the trustee who is to be deemed owner of the property as well as the income A Mutawalli of a Waqf Alal-aulad is, on the other hand, merely the manager of the trust property. The property and its income vest not in the Mutawalli but in God though, according to the provisions of the trust, a part or the whole of that income may be divisible amongst the beneficiaries to be enjoyed by them. When neither the property nor the income vest in the Mutawalli and he holds them merely as a manager, that income cannot be treated as his personal income and added to his personal income from other sources for the purpose of assessing agricultural Income-tax. The income received by him as a mere manager of the trust property must, therefore, be assessed separately from his personal income.