SHRI SEVAGIRI MAHARAJ DEOSTHAN,SATARA V. INCOME TAX OFFICER - EXEMPTION WARD 1(1), PUNE, PUNE

ITA 1348/PUN/2025

AI Insights

The case involves Shri Sevagiri Maharaj Deosthan, a charitable trust, appealing against an order from the National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), which confirmed an addition of Rs. 75,27,115 to the income of the appellant. This addition was initially made by the Assessing Officer under section 144 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, treating corpus donations as income. The appellant contested this, arguing that corpus donations are capital receipts and not taxable. The Tribunal, considering the circumstances and the request for a de novo assessment, decided to remit the matter back to the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 774705 (ITAT-PUNE)
• Duration Of Justice: 3 month(s) 7 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 03-09-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Bench Allotted: SMC
• Assessment Year: 2017-2018
• Appeal Filed On: 26-05-2025
• Laws Referred To: Income-tax Act, 1961
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Department Lawyers: SANJAY DHIVARE
• Assessee Lawyers: KAUSHAL JAIN
• Keywords: Set aside; Reasonable cause; Capital receipt; Charitable institution

Judgement Text

" IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL PUNE BENCHES “SMC”, PUNE BEFORE DR.MANISH BORAD, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER आयकर अपील सं. / ITA No.1348/PUN/2025 Assessment Year : 2017-18 Shri Sevagiri Maharaj Deosthan A/P, Pusegaon Tal Khatav, Satara 415502, Maharashtra PAN: AAHTS2910G Vs. ITO, Exemption Ward-1(1), Pune Appellant Respondent आदेश / ORDER PER DR. MANISH BORAD, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER : The captioned appeal at the instance of assessee pertaining to A.Y. 2017-18 is directed against the order dated 03.03.2025 of National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi passed u/s.250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter also called ‘the Act’) arising out of Assessment Order dated 01.11.2019 passed u/s.144 of the Act. 2. Assessee has raised following grounds of appeal : “1. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the Honourable Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) has erred in confirming the addition of Rs. 75,27,115/- to the income of the appellant by treating the corpus donation as income of the appellant without appreciating the fact that the corpus donations are capital receipts and not taxable. Hence the appellant hereby prays that the addition of Rs 75,27,115/- may please be deleted. 2. The appellant hereby reserves the right to add, amend, alter, or raise any additional ground or grounds of appeal or delete or withdraw any of the grounds of appeal.” Appellant by : Shri Kaushal Jain (through virtual) Respondent by : Shri Sanjay Dhivare Date of hearing : 11.08.2025 Date of pronouncement : 03.09.2025 Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.1348/PUN/2025 Shri Sevagiri Maharaj Deosthan 2 3. At the outset, ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that since the order of ld. Assessing Officer is best judgment assessment framed u/s.144 of the Act and secondly assessee failed to comply with the notices of hearing issued by ld.CIT(A), prayer has been made to provide one more opportunity for going before ld.Jurisdictional Assessing Officer for adjudication of the issue and to frame denovo assessment. 4. Ld. DR on the other hand supported the orders of the lower authorities. 5. I have heard the rival contentions and perused the record placed before me. Admittedly, the assessee which is a charitable trust and on the basis of information about cash deposits in Specified Bank Notes (SBNs) during the demonetization period in the bank account maintained with Bank of Maharashtra , Pusegaon branch ld. Assessing Officer (AO) carried out the assessment proceedings and issued notice u/s.142(1) of the Act. Due to partial compliance, ld. AO concluded the proceedings by making addition of Rs.29,85,490/-. Aggrieved assessee preferred appeal before ld.CIT(A) but then for lack of proper submissions assessee failed to succeed. 6. Under the given facts and circumstances and the prayer made by ld. Counsel for the assessee, I hereby deem it proper to afford one more opportunity to the assessee. In view thereof, without dwelling into merits of the issues, the issues are remitted back to the file of ld. Jurisdictional Assessing Officer for for denovo assessment. Needless to mention that ld.JAO in the set aside proceedings shall afford reasonable opportunity of hearing to the assessee. Assessee is directed to update latest Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.1348/PUN/2025 Shri Sevagiri Maharaj Deosthan 3 email id and contact detail on ITBA portal. Assessee is also directed to remain vigilant and not to take adjournment unless otherwise required for reasonable cause. Impugned order is hereby set aside and effective grounds of appeal raised by the appellant are allowed for statistical purposes. 7. In the result, appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced on this 03rd day of September, 2025. Sd/- (MANISH BORAD) ACCOUNTANT MEMBER पुणे / Pune; \u0001दनांक / Dated : 03rd September, 2025. Satish आदेश क\u0002 \u0003ितिलिप अ ेिषत / Copy of the Order forwarded to : 1. अपीलाथ / The Appellant. 2. \u000eयथ / The Respondent. 3. The Pr. CIT concerned. 4. िवभागीय ितिनिध, आयकर अपीलीय अिधकरण, “SMC” ब\u0014च, पुणे / DR, ITAT, “SMC” Bench, Pune. 5. गाड\u0004 फ़ाइल / Guard File. आदेशानुसार / BY ORDER, // True Copy // Senior Private Secretary आयकर अपीलीय अिधकरण, पुणे / ITAT, Pune. Printed from counselvise.com "