The assessee trust was set up with the object of “worship of Lord Shiva, Hanumanji, Goddess Durga and maintaining of temple” and “to celebrate festivals like Shivratri, Hanuman Jayanti, Ganesh Uttasav, Makar Sankranti”. It applied for a certificate under section 80G. S. 80G (5) provides that the trust should be established for a “charitable purpose”. Explanation 3 to s. 80G provides that “charitable purpose” does not include a purpose which is of a “religious nature”. S. 80G(5)(iii) also stipulates that the trust should not be expressed to be for the benefit of any particular religious community or caste. The CIT rejected the application on the ground that the assessee was set up for “religious” purposes. On appeal by the assessee to the Tribunal, HELD reversing the CIT:
The objects of the assessee is not for advancement, support or propagation of a particular religion. Worshipping Lord Shiva, Hanumanji, Goddess Durga and maintaining the temple is not advancement, support or propagation of a particular religion. Lord Shiva, Hanumanji & Goddess Durga do not represent any particular religion. They are merely regarded to be the super power of the universe. Further, there is no religion like “Hinduism”. The word “Hindu” is not defined in any of the texts nor in judge made law. The word was given by British administrators to inhabitants of India, who were not Christians, Muslims, Parsis or Jews. Hinduism is a way of life. It consists of a number of communities having different gods who are being worshipped in a different manner, different rituals, different ethical codes. The worship of god is not essential for a person who has adopted Hinduism way of life. Therefore, expenses incurred for worshipping of Lord Shiva, Hanuman, Goddess Durga and for maintenance of temple cannot be regarded to be for religious purpose (Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments vs. Sri Lakshmindra Thirtha Swamiar 1954 SCJ 335 & T. T. Kuppuswamy Chettiar Vs. State of Tamil Nadu (1987) 100 LW 1031 followed).
In an earlier judgment CWT vs. Shridharan 104 ITR 436 (SC) of the Supreme Court the concept of Hindusim has been legally explained.
The facts of that case were....
The late R. Sridharan married Rosa Maria Steinbichler, a christian Austrian of descent, under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and a son Nicolas Sundaram was born out of the wedlock. In the assessment proceedings i respect of income tax, wealth tax and expenditure tax, Sridharan claimed to be assessed in the status of a member of Hindu Undivided Family consisting of himself and his son, contending that the property held by him was ancestral and Nicolas Sundaram was a Hindu. The late R. Sridharan married Rosa Maria Steinbichler, a christian Austrian of descent, under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and a son Nicolas Sundaram was born out of the wedlock. In the assessment proceedings i respect of income tax, wealth tax and expenditure tax, Sridharan claimed to be assessed in the status of a member of Hindu Undivided Family consisting of himself and his son, contending tha the property held by him was ancestral and Nicolas Sundaram was a Hindu. officers dealing with these taxes rejected the contention and assessed him as an individual on the ground that succession to the property of a person married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, is governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925 and not by ordinary Hindu Law and Nicolas Sundaram could not become a member of Hindu Undivided Family With his father. these orders were affirmed by the Appellate Assistant Commission in the Appellate Tribunal in appeals by Sridharan against the assessments..
On further applications made by Sridharan, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal referred the matter to the High Court which decided in favour of Sridharan but granted a certificate of fitness. Meanwhile, Sridharan died, and his widow filed wealth tax returns, claiming the status of a member of Hindu Undivided Family. The Revenue authorities followed their earlier decisions, and ultimately the matter was referred to the High Court which decided in favour of respondent Mrs. Sridharan, but granted Leave to appeal to this Court.
Dismissing the appeals, the Court, held -
The sole question which, however, falls for our consideration in these appeals is whether Nicolas Sundaram is a Hindu governed by Hindu law. It is a matter of common knowledge that Hinduism embraces within itself so many diverse forms of beliefs, faiths, practices and worship that it is difficult to define the term 'Hindu' with precision.
The historical and etymological genesis of the word "Hindu" has been succinctly explained by Gajendragadkar, C.J. in Shastri Yagnapurushdasji & ors. v. Muldas Bhundardas Vaishya & Anr.(l).
In Unabridged Edition of Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English language, the term 'Hinduism' has been defined as meaning "a complex body of social, cultural, and religious beliefs and practices evolved in and largely confined to the Indian subcontinent and marked by a caste system, an outlook tending to view all forms and theories as aspects of one eternal being and truth, a belief in ahimsa, karma, dharma, sansara, and moksha, and the practice of the way of works, the way of knowledge, or the way of devotion as the means of release from the bound of rebirths; the way of life and form of thought of a Hindu".
In Encyclopaedia Britannica (15th Edition), the term 'Hinduism' has been defined as meaning "the civilization of Hindus (originally, the inhabitants of the land of the Indus River). It properly denotes the Indian civilization of approximately the last 2,000 years, which gradually evolved from Vedism, the religion of the ancient Indo-European peoples who settled in India in the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. Because it integrates a large variety of heterogeneous elements, Hinduism constitutes a very complex but largely continuous whole, and since it covers the whole of life, it has religious, social, economic, literary, and artistic aspects. As a religion, Hinduism is an utterly diverse conglomerate of doctrines, cults, and way of life .... In principle, Hinduism incorporates all forms of belief and worship without necessitating the selection or elimination of any. The Hindu is inclined to revere the divine in every manifestation, whatever it may be, and is doctrinally tolerant, leaving others-including both Hindus and non-Hindus-whatever creed and worship practices suit them best. A Hindu may embrace a non-Hindu religion without ceasing to be a Hindu, and since the Hindu is disposed to think synthetically and to regard other forms of worship, strange gods, and divergent doctrines as inadequate rather than wrong or objectionable, he tends to believe that the highest divine powers complement each other for the well-being of the world and mankind. Few religious ideas are considered to be finally irreconcilable. The core of religion does not even depend on the existence or non-existence of God or on whether there is one god or many. Since religious truth is said to transcend all verbal definition it is not conceived in dogmatic terms. Hinduism is, then both a civilization and a conglomerate of religions, with neither a beginning, a founder, nor a central authority, hierarchy, or organization. Every attempt at a specific definition of Hinduism has proved unsatisfactory in one way or another, the more so because the finest Indian scholars of Hinduism, including Hindus themselves, have emphasized different aspects of the whole".
The court stated that under the codifying Acts namely the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the Hindu Minority and Guardian ship Act, 1956 and the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, the orthodox concept of the term 'Hindu' has undergone a radical change and it has been given an extended meaning. The aforesaid codifying Acts not only apply to Hindus by birth or religion i.e. to converts to Hinduism but also to a large number of other persons. According to explanation (b) to section 2(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 and Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 as also according to explanation (ii) to section 3(1) of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, any child legitimate or illegitimate, one of whose parents is a Hindu by religion and who is brought up as a Hindu is a Hindu.
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