COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. THAKUR DASS BHARGAVA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a case stated by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal of Delhi in which the following question has been referred for the opinion of this Court:

(2.) The assessee in this case is Pandit Thakar Das Bhargava, an advocate of Hissar, and the amount in dispute in the present case is a sum of Rs. 32,500/- which was paid in the accounting year ending 31-3-1946. Pandit Bhargava was an advocate of some eminence on the criminal side, but had almost given up his practice. There was a Hindu-Muslim riot case in Farrukhnagar where several persons were killed and some Hindus of Farukhnagar were prosecuted for murder. Some leading Hindus of the Gurgaon district "approached" Pandit Bhargava to conduct the case but he refused as he was not in active practice. Ultimately he was persuaded to accept the brief to defend the accused in the Farrukhnagar case in the Sessions Court "on condition that the accused and their friends provided Rs. 40,000/- for a charitable trust which he would create. He did defend the accused who paid a sum of Rs. 32,500/-" in July 1945. On 6-8-1945 he executed the following deed of trust:

(3.) In their order passed on appeal the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal held-