AK Children Academy Charitable Society, Ghaziabad V. CIT(E), Lucknow

ITA 9181/DEL/2019

• Counselvise Citation: [2022] 104 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 9600 (ITAT-DELHI)
• Duration Of Justice: 2 year(s) 10 month(s) 2 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 29-09-2022
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Bench Allotted: A
• Assessment Year: misc
• Appeal Filed On: 26-11-2019
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Keywords: Opportunity of being heard
• Section: 80G

Judgement Text

1 ITA no. 9181/Del/2019 IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL DELHI BENCH “A”: NEW DELHI BEFORE SHRI ANIL CHATURVEDI, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER AND SHRI NARENDER KUMAR CHOUDHRY, JUDICIAL MEMBER ITA No. 9181/DEL/2019 U/s 80G of the Income-tax Act, 1961 A K Children Academy Charitable Society, 8/1, Sector-3, Rajendra Nagar, Ghaziabad. PAN- AADTA1031G Vs Commissioner of Income-tax (Exemption), Lucknow. APPELLANT RESPONDENT Assessee represented by None Department represented by Sh. R.K. Gupta, CIT DR Date of hearing 26.09.2022 Date of pronouncement 30.09.2022 O R D E R PER N.K. CHOUDHRY, JM: The Assessee has preferred the instant appeal against the order dated 30.09.2019 impugned herein passed by the Ld. Commissioner of Income tax (Exemption), Lucknow (in short “Ld. Commissioner”) u/s 80G(5)(vi) of the Income-tax Act,1961 (in short “the Act”). 2 ITA no. 9181/Del/2019 2. In the instant case though notice of hearing on 26.09.2022 was issued through speed post, to the appellant at the address i.e. “A K Children Academy Charitable Society, C/o SanjeevAnand& Associates 77, Navyug Market, Ghaziabad-201001”, as mentioned in Form no. 36, however, the same returned back as un-served by the postal authorities. Therefore, in the constrained circumstances we are deciding this appeal ex parte. 3. Brief facts, relevant for adjudication of the instant appeal are that the appellant Society by e-filing an application on dated 28.03.2019 sought registration u/s 80G(5) of the Act, which was taken into consideration by the learned Commissioner who issued various notices for clarification and filing of certain documents. In response, the appellant filed the relevant documents. Considering the same the learned Commissioner declined to grant the registration sought, by observing, “from the facts mentioned above, it is noticed that the applicant has submitted the bank account in Tally software, presuming that this is sufficient compliance. No physical copies or narration of entries was submitted. Thus, the applicant has repeatedly, avoided to explain the 3 ITA no. 9181/Del/2019 debit/credit entries exceeding Rs. 50000/- in its bank statements. In this context, it may be noted that, mere submission of bank statement is not sufficient to explain the entries in the bank statement. The narration is required, to find out the nature and purpose of payments/ debit entries. This is so because, the expenses/ payments needs to be made only for charitable purposes and not for any other purpose. Further, it is also to be verified whether any payments have been made for the benefit of any person as per section 13(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.” The learned Commissioner while rejecting the registration sought u/s 80 G of the Act, also observed “as per Rule 11AA(3) of the income Tax Rules, 1962 (in short “Rules”), that the Commissioner may call for such further documents or information from the institution or fund or cause such inquiries to be made as he may deem necessary in order to satisfy himself about the genuineness of the activities of such institution or fund.In the instant case, the failure of the applicant to provide necessary information with regard to the entries in the bank account, has led to a situation, where the genuineness of the activities cannot be ascertained.” 4. The Appellant being aggrieved preferred the instant appeal. 4 ITA no. 9181/Del/2019 5. Heard the Ld. DR and perused the material available on record. By raising the grounds, the appellant claimed to appear physically along with all the required documentsand books of account, before the Ld. Commissioner, whereas from the order impugned it appears that the appellant was asked to file the clarification/ documents only through e-mail. In the impugned order, no-where appears that the Assessee appeared physically and demonstrated its case in proper manner and to the satisfaction of the learned Commissioner. Hence, to resolve the controversy and for just decision of the case, we deem it appropriate to remand the instant case to the file of the learned Commissioner for decision afresh, suffice to say by affording reasonable opportunity of being heard to the appellant. The appellant is also directed to appear and file the relevant document(s) in electronic and physical form, as would be required by the learned Commissioner and to satisfy the learned Commissioner qua debit/credit entries as appears in the bank statement filed by the appellant. We clarify, in case of default by the appellant,the learned Commissioner would be at liberty to decide the application in accordance with law and without showing any leniency. 5 ITA no. 9181/Del/2019 5. In the result, appeal filed by the Appellant is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in open court on 30.09.2022. Sd/- Sd/- (ANIL CHATURVEDI) (N.K. CHOUDHRY) ACCOUNTANT MEMBER JUDICIAL MEMBER *MP* Copy forwarded to: 1. Appellant 2. Respondent 3. CIT 4. CIT(Appeals) 5. DR: ITAT ASSISTANT REGISTRAR ITAT, NEW DELHI