GOONJ FOUNDATION,NASHIK vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME-TAX, (EXEPTION), PUNE

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ITA 1361/PUN/2019Status: DisposedITAT Pune17 February 20203 pages
AI SummaryRemanded

What did the Tribunal hold?

The Tribunal held that principles of natural justice require that a party should be given a sufficient opportunity of hearing. Therefore, one more opportunity should be granted to the assessee to present its case before the CIT(Exemptions).

What were the facts?

The assessee, Goonj Foundation, applied for registration under Section 12AA of the Income Tax Act. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) rejected the application, stating that required details were not furnished. The assessee appealed this rejection.

What were the issues?

Whether the CIT(Exemptions) was justified in rejecting the application for registration without providing a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee, and whether proper notice was served.

Which sections of the Income-tax Act were involved?

Section 12AA,Section 282

AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below

Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, PUNE BENCH “A”, PUNE

Before: SHRI GEORGE MATHAN, JM & SHRI ANIL CHATURVEDI, AM

For Respondent: Shri B.Kishore, CIT
Hearing: 12.02.2020Pronounced: 17.02.2020

आदेश / ORDER PER ANIL CHATURVEDI, AM :

1.

This appeal filed by the assessee is emanating out of the order of Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) – Pune dated 12.07.2019 passed u/s 12AA(1)(b)(ii) of the Income Tax Act.

2. The relevant facts as culled out from the material on record are as under :-

Assessee is a Trust registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950 on 08.01.2016. Assessee electronically filed an application for registration of Trust under Sec.12AA(1)(b)(ii) of the Act on 12.01.2019 and the same was rejected by CIT (Exemptions), Pune vide order No.ITBA/EXM/S/EXM1/2019- 20/1016753242(1) dated 12.07.2019. Aggrieved by the order of Ld.CIT(E), assessee is now in appeal before us and has raised the following grounds :

“1. The AO i.e. CIT Exemptions, Pune is not justified in rejecting the application for registration u/s 12A of the Income Tax Act,1961 without giving us the reasonable opportunity of being heard.

2.

The notice dated 28/02/2019 under which information was called for was never being served, hence we were in not position to make the necessary compliances.

3.

Further, the status of our application on the Income Tax site was always "Successfully e- Filed". We regularly visited the website for the status of the same and also have the screenshots of the website on various dates upto the date of passing of order wherein the status was always shown as "Successfully e-Filed" and thus we were not in position to comply.

4. The notice dated 28/02/2019 was never served via email or by post as required under section 282 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

5. On the basis of facts and in the circumstances of the case, the order passed u/s 12AA(l)(b)(ii) of the Act may please be quashed.”

3. All the grounds being inter-connected are considered together.

4.

On the date of hearing, none appeared on behalf of the assessee nor any adjournment application was filed. We therefore proceed to dispose of the appeal ex-parte qua the assessee based on the material available on record and after hearing the Ld.D.R.

5.

Before us, Ld. D.R. submitted that in the absence of the required details which were not filed by assessee, Ld.CIT(E) was fully justified in rejecting the application for registration. He thus supported the order of Ld.CIT(E).

6.

We have heard the Ld. D.R. and perused the material on record. The issue in the present case is with respect to denial of grant of registration u/s 12AA of the Act. We find that Ld.CIT(E) rejected the application of registration of Trust mainly for the reason that the required details were not furnished by the assessee. Before us, though assessee did not appear but in view of the well settled principle of natural justice that sufficient opportunity of hearing should be afforded to the parties and no party should be condemned unheard, we are of the view that one more opportunity be granted to the assessee to present its case before the Ld.CIT(E). We therefore restore the matter back to the file of Ld.CIT(E) to decide the issue of registration of Trust u/s 12AA of the Act in accordance with law and after granting reasonable opportunity of hearing to the assessee. Thus, the grounds of assessee are allowed for statistical purposes.

7.

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

Order pronounced on 17th day of February, 2020.

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