Integrity Score 405
No Records Found
No Records Found
LITIGANTS, LAWYERS AND JUDGES continues...
We spent the summer of 1934 partly at Srinagar. We took a house in the Gagribal area. I used to take my morning walk to the temple of Shankracharya and we also used to take various trips to other places in the car. A distressing incident took place once on our trip to the Manasbal lake. We had hired ponies and some Kashmiri labourers from the motor stand to the lake and back. On our return, when we started making payment as agreed, the Kashmiris demanded much more than the agreed rate. They also refused to carry our luggage to the motor stand. All our pleadings went in vain. Sardar Khem Chand, a retired officer of the Toshakhana, who had been dealing with them all his life was one of the party. He flared up and hit some of them with his lathi. The effect was instantaneous and they were now willing to do anything that we asked them to do. This was a peculiar characteristic of the Kashmiris then. If a tourist asked them for some service politely, they would pay no heed and even become turbulent. If one dealt with them firmly, they were prepared to obey. Conditions, I am told, have changed for the better since then.
In I935, I was engaged in the Tribune Trust Income tax case. It was claimed on behalf of the trustees that the profits earned by the sale of The Tribune were not liable to income tax as the paper had been started for a charitable purpose by its founder, Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia. The income tax officers claimed that these were business profits and were liable to income tax. The whole question devolved on the definition of the word “charitable purpose” as defined in the Indian Income Tax Act. According to that definition, works of public utility were also works of a charitable nature. The two judges who first heard the case differed and the matter was referred to a full Bench.
to be continued...
( This account is maintained by Har Anand Publication)