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Showing contexts for: charitable trust objects in Brahman Sabha Karveer, Kolhapur vs Commissioner Of Income-Tax Exemption, ... on 7 January, 2021Matching Fragments
3. On perusal of the application in Form 10A, ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) had issued a questionnaire on 08.06.2020 calling for the appellant to file certain details. The ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption), on perusal of the information filed and the trust deed, held that the objects of the trust are religious in nature and also observed that the appellant society is engaged in the activities of running an Event Hall and a Bhaktniwas and enjoying the receipts of the rentals income attracting the proviso to section 2(15) of the Act. The ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) also held that the receipts the income of the trust were not fully applied for charitable purpose instead the surplus funds were invested in the form of FDs with banks. Based on these observations, he had come to the conclusion that the activities as well as the objects of the trust are not charitable and also not satisfied with the genuineness of activities of the trust and, accordingly, he denied the grant of registration u/s 12AA of the Act vide order dated 05.10.2020.
7. We are afraid that the reasons assigned by the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) for denial of grant of registration u/s 12AA of the Act are no longer tenable in the eyes of law. Now, we shall deal with each of the reasons assigned by the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption). Primarily, the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) was of the opinion that the objects of the trust are not charitable in nature because the some of the objects are religious in nature. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Fazlul Rabbi Pradhan vs. State of West Bengal, AIR 1965 SC 1722 clearly held that the religious activity also falls within the ambit and scope of charitable activities. Further, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of CIT vs. Dawoodi Bohra Jamat, 364 ITR 31 also held that whereby the objects of the trust are mixed in nature i.e. religious, partly religious and partly non- religious the registration cannot be denied u/s 12AA of the Act. These ratio of the judgements was followed by us consistently in series of decisions of the Tribunal like in the case of Jain Shwetambar Mandir Trust vs. CIT (Exemptions) vide ITA No.2901/PUN/2017 order dated 04.11.2020 (wherein one of us i.e. the Hon'ble Accountant Member is authored) held as under :-
8. Further, the provisions of section 13(1)(b) of the Act had carved out exception to the exemption available u/s 11 and 12 of the Act. One of those exception is that the exemption u/s 11 and 12 would not be available in case any income of trust or institution is created or established for the benefit of any particular religious, community or caste. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of CIT vs. Dawoodi Bohra Jamat, 364 ITR 31 after exhaustively referring to the earlier precedent, held that where the objects of a trust are both charitable and religious, the trust shall be eligible for registration u/s 12AA of the Act. The section only requires to be established that such charitable purpose is not for the benefit of a particular religious community or caste. That is to say, it needs to be examined whether such religious-charitable activity carried on by the trust only benefits a certain particular religious community or class or serves across the communities and for society at large. In the present case, ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) had obviously not embarked upon enquiry into this aspect. Therefore, in our considered opinion, in the interests of justice, the matter requires remission to the file of the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) for fresh adjudication keeping in view the legal position discussed above after affording reasonable opportunity of being heard to the appellant society. Accordingly, the matter is set aside to the file of the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) for fresh adjudication."
"9. We heard the rival submissions and perused the material on record. The only issue in the present appeal relates to the grant of registration u/s 12AA of the Act. From the perusal of the impugned order, it is clear that the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax, Exemption, Pune denied the grant of registration u/s 12AA of the Act solely on the ground that the appellant trust had failed to furnish the evidence of expenditure of Rs.6.57 lakhs incurred during the financial year 2018-19. There is no allegation by the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax, Exemption, Pune that the expenditure has been incurred by the appellant trust for objects other than the charitable objects. Nor was it the case of the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax the objects of the trust are not charitable in nature. It is trite law that at the time of grant of registration, the Commissioner of Income Tax is only expected to examine and satisfy himself that the objects of the trust are charitable and its activities are in furtherance of the charitable in nature i.e. satisfy himself about the genuineness of the activities carried on by the assessee as held by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Ananda Social and Educational Trust (supra).