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This is an Appeal by the Assessee agitating the Order by the Director of Income- Tax (Exemption), Mumbai ('DIT(E)' for short) dated 23.08.2011, rejecting the assessee's application for registration u/s.12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ('the Act' hereinafter).

Inter-connected Stock Exchange Investors Protection Fund (ISE IPF) vs. DIT (Exemption) 2.1 Opening the arguments for and on behalf of the assessee, it was submitted by its counsel, Shri A. H. Dalal, that the assessee-appellant is a Trust formed and settled on 29th day of June, 2009 by Inter-connected Stock Exchange India Ltd. (ISEL), a company formed by the coming together of the 23 (the trust deed mentions the said number at 36 though/ PB pgs. 04 - 15) regional Stock Exchanges of India to provide a common platform for trading in shares and securities. The assessee-trust was formed in pursuance of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) guidelines/regulations for investor protection, with the sole aim of creating a Fund which could provide compensation to the investors in case of loss on account of default by any member of a participating, recognized Stock Exchange. The same is a public charitable cause, falling within the scope of the term 'charitable purpose' as defined u/s. 2(15), vide the last limb thereof, i.e., the advancement of any other object of general public utility. The ambit of the same is well-settled per a number of decisions by no less than the hon'ble apex court; it clarifying per its recent decision in CIT vs. Gujarat Maritime Board [2007] 295 ITR 561(SC) the said term to be of the widest connotation. There is, as such, no denying the fact that the object of the Trust qualifies to be a charitable purpose under the Act. The Revenue has, however, denied the benefit of registration on the ground that the same does not cater to the members of the public at large, but only to the members of the public who invest in shares. It is not necessary that the objects of a trust or fund, to qualify as for a charitable purpose, should be applicable to all the members of the public, and it would suffice if they are so to members drawn from a cross-section of the public engaged in a particular trade or activity, as the investing community in the instant case. Reference for the purpose was drawn by him to the decision in the case of Ahmedabad Rana Caste Association vs. CIT [1971] 82 ITR 704 (SC), copy of which is placed at pages 60-63 of the assessee's paper-book (PB).

"Thus, it is only upon being satisfied about the objects of the applicant, as well as about the genuineness of its activities that the Commissioner is obliged to register a trust/institution as charitable, by an order in writing, being also required to do so where not so satisfied. Clearly, the satisfaction qua the 'objects' is only with regard to their being for a charitable (or religious) purpose/s. It cannot but be otherwise; the registration being only toward the applicant being a public charitable (or religious) trust or institution under the Act. This, in fact, is the edifice or the terra firma on which the provision rests. As such, even though the registration certificate or the communication in its respect may not, or is not required to, contain an explicit finding or mention as to the satisfaction with regard to the objects of the trust or institution being for charitable purpose/s, that is the basis upon which, or a condition precedent to the grant of the status of a public charitable entity in-so-far as the Act is concerned, that the registration there-under confers."