KATHURIA FOUNDATION,NAINITAL vs. CIT (EXEMPTION)-, LUCKNOW

IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, DELHI BENCHES, NEW DELHI (CIRCUIT BENCH AT DEHRADUN) BEFORE SHRI SUDHANSHU SRIVASTAVA, JUDICIAL MEMBER AND SHRI PRASHANT MAHARISHI, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER ITA No.2064/Del/2019 (Assessment Year:2018-19) Kathuria Foundation, Vs. CIT(Exemption), Govind Hall Above Co-operative Lucknow Store the Mall, Nainital, Uttarakhand PAN: AADTK2587K (Appellant) (Respondent)

Assessee by : Shri S. K. Matta, CA Shri Sudhir Matta, CA Revenue by: Shri Bhopal Singh, JCIT Date of Hearing 28/02/2020 Date of pronouncement 13/05/2020

O R D E R PER PRASHANT MAHARISHI, A. M. 1. This appeal is filed by appellantcharitable trust against the order of the LD CIT (Exemption), Lucknow for rejecting the registration to the assessee u/s 12AA (1) (v) (ii) of the Act by order dated 09.01.2019. 2. Brief facts of the case shows that the assessee is a charitable trust who filed an application for registration u/s 12A(a) on 27.08.2018 with CIT(Exemption), Lucknow. 3. The object of the trust is to provide financial support by way of school fees to poor and deserving students. Such fees were paid directly to the schools by way of account payee cheques. Therefore, the object of the assessee was educational activities. Thus claiming it be an eligible trust to be registered u/s 12 A a of the filed an application in prescribed form before the ld CIT- E. 4. To verify the object of the trust and genuineness of the activities the ld CIT(E) issued notice to the trust for production of books or vouchers in Page | 1

support of its claims. The ld CIT(E) noted that applicants has merely submitted copies of the trust deed and could not show any other material which could have thrown light upon the activities. As neither the books of account nor the vouchers were produced before him, ld CIT(E) doubted the genuineness of the activities of the trust and held that application is deficient. Therefore, he held that the assessee does not deserve the registration. Accordingly, he rejected the application in absence of sufficient material required for formation of satisfaction about eligibility of the trust with respect to genuineness of its activities. Therefore, assessee is in appeal before us. 5. The ld AR submitted before us that assessee is carrying on educational activities by reimbursement of the school fees of the poor students. It was further submitted that as the trust was formed in the financial year ended on 31.03.2018 with an initial corpus Rs. 11000/- by the founder. Further, sum of Rs. 25000/- was received as donation in trust corpus. The miscellaneous donation of Rs. 5900/- was received by the trust. Out of the above funds, assessee has incurred the total expenditure on education of poor children of approximately Rs. 27000/- and small amount was spent on administrative expenses. The assessee submitted that it has already filed the return of income for Assessment Year 2018- 19 on 17.08.2018 which was available on record before the ld CIT(E) before he passed the order on 09.01.2019. He therefore, submitted that it is not correct that assessee did not carry on any activity. He further submitted that the books of account of the assessee were duly audited by the Chartered Accountant on 15.05.2018 for the year ended on 31.03.2018 which was also available on record. He also referred to the statement of the investment as well as utilization of the funds for charitable purposes. He also referred to the notice of activities for FY 2017-18. He supported activities of the trust by submitting the bank account with the Axis Bank wherein, the donations received as well as the outflow or applications of fund are clearly demonstrated. In view of this he submitted that all these details were submitted to the ld CIT(E) but same have not been considered in the proper perspective. He therefore, submitted that the ld CIT(E) has wrongly denied the registration. Page | 2