SURYA EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY,AMBALA CITY vs. CIT(EXEMPTION), CHANDIGARH

Following grounds have been raised in this appeal:

That the Worthy CIT Exemption has acted in-haste while finalizing the Order under section 12AA(l)(b)(ii) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, thus rejecting Application for registration U/s 12A and not properly taken on records the submissions and documents placed on the file by the Appellant. So the order passed u/s 12AA(l)(b)(ii) is bad in law and deserved to be annulled.

That having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case Ld. CIT Exemptions has erred in law and on facts in rejecting the registration u/s 12AA of the Act and that too by recording irrelevant and incorrect facts and findings and

That in any view of the matter and in any case, the action of Ld. CIT Exemptions in rejecting the registration under section 12AA is bad in law and against the facts and circumstances of the case and is contrary to the principles of natural justice as the impugned order has been passed without granting adequate opportunity of hearing, by recording incorrect facts and findings and the appellant ought to have been granted the benefit of registration under the law. 4. That the appellant craves the leave to add, modify, amend or delete any of the grounds of appeal at the time of hearing and all the above grounds are without prejudice to each other.

Facts of the case in brief are that the assessee e-filed Form No. 10A on 18/07/2020 seeking Registration under section 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act’). The assessee society was created on 07/09/1992 having the main object to establish institutions, school, colleges, libraries, study circle, research institution in healthy & salubrious surrounding with the purpose of education etc. The Ld. CIT(E) raised certain queries which are incorporated in para 5 of the impugned order. The Ld. CIT(E) also mentioned that the reply of the assessee on the above queries was received through ITBP portal. Thereafter, the application moved by the assessee was rejected by observing as under:

Now the assessee is in appeal.

The Ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that the Ld. CIT(E) without raising any specific query rejected the application moved by the assessee for Registration under section 12AA of the Act and even no opportunity of being heard was provided to give reply of the queries if any. It was further submitted the Ld. CIT(E) simply commented on the entries in the Balance Sheet which was furnished but never asked the assessee for any explanation. It was stated that the object of the assesse are charitable in nature, therefore, the Ld. CIT(E) ought to have granted the Registration under section 12AA of the Act.

In his rival submissions the Ld. CIT DR strongly supported the impugned order passed by the Ld. CIT(E).

We have considered the rival submissions of both the parties and perused the material available on the record. In the present case the main grievance of the assessee is that the opportunity of being heard was not provided before rejecting the application moved by the assessee for Registration under section 12AA of the Act. In the instant case it is not clear as to whether the Ld. CIT(E)raised the queries after receiving the reply from the assessee to the earlier

We therefore keeping in view the principles of natural justice deem it appropriate to set aside this case back to the file of Ld. CIT(E) to be adjudicated afresh in accordance with law after providing due and reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee.

In the result, appeal of the Assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.