HON’BLE SUPREME COURT · SOURCE-REVIEWED NOTE
J. K. Trust, Bombay v. Commissioner of Income-tax/Excess Profits Tax, Bombay
Civil Appeal 246 of 1954
[1958] SCR 65 ·
Indian Income-tax Act 1922, sections 4(3)(i), 4(3)(ia) and 66
Sources & disclosures includedDownload original judgment / order
3-judge bench · N. H. Bhagwati · T. L. Venkatarama Aiyar · J. L. Kapur
Assessment years: 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49
01 · Facts of the case
Trustees constituted a managing agency with trust authority and a one-lakh-rupee security deposit. They claimed charitable exemption for agency remuneration. Revenue denied that the business was trust property and alternatively relied on special business-exemption conditions.
Source: Primary report: SCR 66–70
02 · Discussion by the Hon’ble Court
Business and a remunerative managing agency could be property held on trust. Obligations and terminability did not prevent that character; using trust funds as security assisted acquisition despite no direct trading investment. But interaction of clauses (i) and (ia) still required determination.
Source: Primary report: SCR 70–78
03 · Judicial decision
Case remanded to Bombay High Court to decide the second referred question; Revenue ordered to pay appeal and previous High Court costs, further costs left to that court.
Source: Primary report: SCR 78
04 · Outcome / in whose favour
Assessee succeeded on property/trust character and obtained remand, not a final grant of exemption.
Source: Primary report: SCR 76–78
05 · AKHB REVIEW POINT
Separate the existence of trust property from satisfaction of statutory business-exemption conditions. The Court deliberately left the clause (ia) interaction undecided; do not present this as unconditional exemption for trust businesses.
Source: Primary report: SCR 76–78
Source & verification
Download original judgment / order · Open cited source rendition
Complete 14-page Supreme Court Reports scan. Any adjoining report fragments remain in the unchanged original and are excluded from this analysis.
Statutory scope
Historical legislation expressly identified in this note. This is not a decision under the Income-tax Act, 1961 or the Income-tax Act, 2025. Verify enacted wording, commencement, transition and subsequent judicial treatment independently before modern reliance.
Later treatment
Source checked 2026-10-23. Subsequent treatment and present-law applicability have not been comprehensively checked.
Page references identify the supplied PDF; paragraph references identify the judgment unless stated otherwise.
AI disclosure & professional disclaimer
This AKHB research note uses AI assistance and a preserved full-primary review, with refreshed exact original-byte verification. Independent human review is not represented.
General legal and tax research only; not legal or tax advice. Verify the complete judgment, applicable statutory version and subsequent treatment before reliance. AKHB REVIEW POINT is editorial analysis, not the Court’s holding.