Income Tax Appellate Tribunal - Amritsar
Shrimati Melo Devi Educational ... vs The Commissioner Of Income Tax ... on 31 August, 2017
IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL
AMRITSAR BENCH; AMRITSAR
BEFORE SH. T.S. KAPOOR, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER AND
SH. N.K.CHOUDHRY, JUDICIAL MEMBER
I.T.A No.57(Asr)/2017
Assessment Year:...........
Smt. Melo Devi Educational Vs. CIT (Exemption),
Society, Chandigarh.
M.D. Public School,
Opposite H. No.301,
Urban Estate Dugri,
Phase-1, Ludhiana.
PAN:AADAS-4814L
(Appellant) (Respondent)
Appellant by: Sh. P.C. Goyal (Ld. C.A)
Respondent by: Sh. Dharam Singh (Ld. D.R)
Date of hearing:17.08.2017
Date of pronouncement:31.08.2017
ORDER
PER N.K.CHOUDHRY:
The instant appeal has been filed by the assessee, by feeling aggrieved against the order dated 23th Sep., 2016 passed by the Ld. CIT (Exemption), u/s 12AA of the I. T. Act.
2. The assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal.
"1. That order passed u/s 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 is against law and facts on the file in as much as the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption), Chandigarh was not justified to arbitrarily hold that the appellant did not fulfill the conditions for grant of registration u/s 12A of the Income Tax Act,1961.2 ITA No.57 (Asr)/2017
2. That it is wrongly stated in the order passed u/s 12AA that no attempt was made by the assessee to put forth its view even till date of passing of order.
3. That order passed u/s 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 is against law and facts on the file as much as the rejection of application for registration is on the grounds which are irrelevant and unfounded."
3. The brief facts of the case are that the application u/s 12A of the Act was filed on 16.03.2016 before the Ld. CIT(E) and up to 10.08.2016 the said application never came for hearing as it reflects from the documents, therefore, the Ld. AR of the assessee by filling an application, reminded , the Ld. CIT(E) for decision on application u/s 12A dated 16.03.2016, it was also reminded that till date the assessee did not receive any communication/notice in this regard, therefore, it was prayed to do the needful .
As it reflects from the order under challenge that the opportunities of being heard was accorded to the assessee by fixing the case on 7th Sep.2016 which undisputedly after the making aware the Ld. CIT(E) by the assessee vide application dated 10-08-2016 and thereafter, again the case was fixed on 19th Sep.2016, however, it reflects from the order passed by the CIT(E) that the notices could not be served and received back undelivered with remarks of the Post man " Left Addressee" which was also confirmed from the postal department website www.indiapost.gov.in where remarks shown as "Item delivery attempted insufficient address".
Finally the Ld. CIT(E) declined to grant registration by holding as under:
"No attempt was made by the assessee to put forth its views even till the date of passing of the order. it has to borne in mind that this being a beneficial clause the onus lies entirely on the application to pursue its case. Given the non-delivery of opportunity letters at the address provided by the applicant in its application for grant of registration in Form No.10A it 3 ITA No.57 (Asr)/2017 becomes evident that the application society does not exit physically at the address provided. In the absence of submissions regarding the activities and response to the presumptions raised it is difficult to verify both the objects & genuineness of activities of the society."
4. On the contrary, the Ld. AR submitted that the assessee never received any communication and even otherwise by filing an application on 16.03.2016, no action was taken on the application of the assessee and in absence of notice/communication the assessee was unable to present its case.
5. The Ld. DR on the other hand, relied upon the order passed by the Ld. CIT(E) and submitted that order does not requires to be interfered with as the same having been passed as logical, reasonable and reasoned order.
6. We have considered the order passed by the Ld. CIT(A) as it reflects from the same that application u/s 12AA was filed before the Ld. CIT(E) on 16.03.2016 but up to 29th August, 2016 nothing was done by the Ld. CIT(E) and by letter dated 10.08.2016 it was reminded by the Ld. AR to the CIT(E) for doing the needful and it reflects from the proceedings that thereafter only the Ld. CIT(E) acted, however, although the Ld. CIT(E) tried to communicate about the proceedings by sending the notices to the assessee but could not get success because the letters could not be delivered due to in-sufficient address on which the Ld. AR submitted that the address of the assessee is correct, even otherwise it reflects from the ITR 2015-16 as well. However, the Ld. AR failed to understand how the communication had not received by whereas the address of the assessee is correct.
We are of the considered opinion that in order to give proper opportunities of being heard, it would be in the interest of justice to 4 ITA No.57 (Asr)/2017 offer proper and reasonable opportunities to the assessee to represent its case.
Hence, we remit the case to the file of the Ld. CIT(E) to decide afresh.
Further we clarify that notices to be again sent to the address mentioned in form No.10A or correct address provided by the Assessee and still if the notices have not been delivered on the aforesaid then the CIT(E) is at liberty to draw adverse inference against the assessee and to pass appropriate order in accordance with law. The assessee is also directed to supply its proper and effective address on which the notices can be served.
7. In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.
Order pronounced in the open Court on 31.08.2017.
Sd/- Sd/-
(T. S. KAPOOR) (N.K.CHOUDHRY)
ACCOUNTANT MEMBER JUDICIAL MEMBER
Dated:31.08.2017.
/PK/ Ps.
Copy of the order forwarded to:
(1) The Assessee:
(2) The
(3) The CIT(A),
(4) The CIT,
(5) The SR DR, I.T.A.T.,
True copy
By order