Sujata V.Manohar, J. - (1.) The assessee M/s. R. B. Shreeram Religious and Charitable Trust, the appellant before us, is a registered public trust. For the assessment year 1966-67 the assessee disclosed in its income-tax return, a deficit of Rs. 32,126/-. The Income-tax Officer, however, added to the income of the assessee voluntary contributions received by the assessee-trust amounting to a sum of Rs. 4,55,000/- for the relevant year. The Income-tax Officer held that the voluntary contributions amounting to Rs. 4,55,000/- received by the assessee during the relevant year were not applicable solely for charitable and religious purposes; and were also not actually applied as such. In appeal, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner held that out of the sum of Rs. 4,55,000/- a sum of Rs. 4,00,000/- could not be treated as income derived from voluntary contributions. Both the revenue as well as the assessee filed appeals from the order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner before the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal. The Tribunal allowed the appeal filed by the revenue and dismissed the appeal filed by the assessee.
(2.) At the instance of assessee, a reference was made to the High Court under Section 256(1) of the Income-tax Act. The questions before the High Court, as reframed by the High Court in the impugned judgment, were as follows (1988 Tax LR 316, para 1 (Bom)):- "(1) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and having regard to the relevant provisions of the I.-T. Act, the voluntary contributions aggregating to Rs. 55,000/- received by the assessee was income liable to be taxed under the I.-T. Act, 1961 (2) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and having regard to the relevant provisions of the I.-T. Act voluntary contributions aggregating to Rs. 4,00,000/- received by the assessee was income liable to be taxed under the I.-T. Act, 1961 (3) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case voluntary contri-butions aggregating to Rs. 55,000/- and Rs. 4,00,000/- were exempt u/S. 12(1) of the I.-T. Act, 1961 (4) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case the Tribunal misdirected itself in holding that mere discharge of debt whether existing or new during the year from out of voluntary contributions of Rs. 55,000/- and Rs. 4,00,000/- does not render it a solely charitable purpose admissible to exemption (5) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case the levy of interest under Sections 139 and 215 of the I.-T. Act, 1961 was justified in law -
(3.) Question No. 5 is not pressed. The High Court answered the remaining questions against the assessee and in favour of the revenue. Hence the present appeal is filed before us by the assessee-trust.;