LITIGANTS, LAWYERS AND JUDGES continues...

The full Bench decidedthe case against us on the ground that the object of the founder of the Trust was political advancement of the country and such an object was not of a charitable nature. The trustees took the case to the Privy Council and I prepared a full note on the case for the use of the lawyer there. The Tribune succeeded and all its profits were held exempt from income tax. This made case law. It was held that promoting political education and awakening the masses was a charitable purpose.

Another interesting case in which I was engaged concerned the Ghanyara Slate Company in the Kangra District. Long ago, the villagers had been persuaded to part with their rights in the village common land, in which some slate quarries were situated, on a permanent lease to an English Company on a nominal rental. The company made huge profits and its shares were regarded as of the highest value. The poor Zamindars who owned the land got very little out of the profits made by the company. The suit was brought by some of the landowners in the village to challenge the lease and, in any case, its terms which authorised the company to do quarrying in any part of the common land rather than on specified plots. Litigation eventually ended in a compromise which benefited the landowners as they were assured of a higher rental.

I paid a number of visits to Peshawar and Abbotabad to conduct a case in which a leading timber merchant of the place, Sir Feroze Shah of Nowshera, was interested. My junior in that case was Mr. Aurangzeb Khan, who later on became the Prime Minister of the Frontier Province in Pakistan.

During this year I was elected vice-president of the D.A.V. College society and my son Parshotam left for England for the I.C.S.

Jaffa oranges are famous all over the world. I ordered some plants through the British High Commissioner there. The plants were sent loaded with plenty of earth.

to be continued...

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