The Jaipur Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) held that the assessee was deprived of the justice to be decided the merits of the registration on account of the shortage of timeto appear before the authorities to furnish genuiness of activities carried out by the trust.
The assessee in this case is Worldwelfare Health Federation. The application in Form No. 10AB seeking registration under Section 12AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 was filed by the applicant online. A notice was issued at the e-mail/address provided in the application requiring the applicant to submit certain documents/explanations.
In response to the notice, the applicant furnished a response which was duly examined and not found tenable.The case was decided on the basis of material placed on record and application of the applicant in Form 10AB for registration under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act was rejected based on the reasons given in the order of the Commission of Income Tax (Exemption) [CIT(E)] order.
Aggrieved by the order the assessee filed an appeal before the Tribunal
The Authorised Representative of the assessee (AR) submitted that the CIT(E) has given very short notice to appear Dr. Shiven Bhandari. Therefore, he could not represent or submit the details on account of not given sufficient opportunity or the time for appearing in person was very short and prayed that if given a chance all the details that may be required and shall be provided by the assessee.
Further the AR pleaded that Dr. Shiven Bhandari is a renowned doctor and has other good sources of income and the time given to him to appear before the CIT(E) was very short and the he could not appear for this reason.
The Departmental Representative (DR) representing the revenue categorically submitted that the assessee was given sufficient time and assessee miserably failed to support the requirement of registration and the CIT(E) has rightly rejected the claim of the assessee for registration.
The Bench comprising of Sandeep Gosain, Judicial Member and Rathod Kamlesh Jayantbhai, Accountant Member observed that Dr. Shiven Bhandari, Director didn’t appear before the CIT(E) and therefore, CIT(E) could not decide the issue about the genuineness of the activities of the assessee trust.
The CIT(E) noted that the impugned institution has been established only for providing services to various business such as Sun Pharmaceutical Limited, Vedic Lifesciences Pvt. Ltd. Etc. for which Dr. Shiven Bhandari, Director is taking enormous amounts as salary.
It was further noted that CIT(E) directed the personal presence of Dr. Bhandari so as to determine the genuineness of the activities and the same was not establish due to shortage of time given.
Therefore the assessee was deprived of the justice to be decided the merits of the registration on account of the shortage of time and the application was dismissed.
The Tribunal restored the matter back to the file of the CIT (E) to decide the dispute independently in accordance with law.
Hence, the appeal of the assessee was allowed for statistical purposes.
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