Supreme Court dismisses pleas to exempt salaried nuns from paying income tax

The missionaries had argued that nuns and priests enter a State of civil death when they take their vow of poverty and need not pay tax. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Supreme Court on Thursday (November 7, 2024) dismissed 93 petitions from various missionaries to exempt salaried nuns from paying income tax.

The missionaries had argued that nuns and priests enter a State of civil death when they take their vow of poverty and need not pay tax.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud however did not agree.

The court said any person who receives a salary, whether a nun or not, has to pay tax. “The law is common for all… How can you say it is not subject to TDS?” the CJI asked.

“When an organisation pays a salary, whether it is retained by the person or paid elsewhere, either to the diocese or someone else, has nothing to do with taxability,” the Chief Justice reasoned.

The missionaries had argued that the salaries were are not used for the personal expenses of the nuns but go to the respective congregations.

They had contended that nuns take the three sacred vows of obedience, chastity and poverty after undergoing rigorous training. They cannot own property and never marry. Nuns live ascetic lives. The income they earn become that of their congregations, which submit tax returns if necessary.

“Once a person takes the vow of poverty, she denounces all her earthly relationships with the natural family. She undergoes civil death. Even if the natural parents of a nun die intestate, the assets of the deceased parents do not devolve upon the nun,” one of the petitions, filed by the Sister Superior of the Franciscan Missionary of St. Clare represented by advocate Romy Chacko, had argued.

The various ecclesiastical orders had challenged a December 1, 2014, Income Tax Department directive to educational authorities and district treasury officers to effect Tax Deducted at Source from members of religious congregations receiving salary from the government.

The directive was challenged in the Kerala High Court, but without success. The High Court had concluded that canon law tenets like a religious congregation has “overriding title over its members” cannot prevail over civil law.