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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, DELHI BENCH “FRIDAY” NEW DELHI
Before: SHRI G.S. PANNU & SHRI AMIT SHUKLA
IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL DELHI BENCH “FRIDAY” NEW DELHI BEFORE SHRI G.S. PANNU, VICE PRESIDENT AND SHRI AMIT SHUKLA, JUDICIAL MEMBER I.T.A. No.7284/DEL/2018
Uttarkhand Technical v. CIT(Exemptions), University, Lucknow. Dehradun. TAN/PAN: AAJU 0251H (Appellant) (Respondent)
Appellant by: Shri Mahesh Bihari Chhibber, Adv. Respondent by: Shri Subhakant Sahu, Sr.D.R. Date of hearing: 01 11 2019 Date of pronouncement: 01 11 2019
O R D E R PER AMIT SHUKLA, JUDICIAL MEMBER: The aforesaid appeal has been field by the assessee against the impugned order dated 14.09.2018 passed by ld. CIT(E), Lucknow u/s.12AA(1)(b)(ii) rejecting the assessee’s application for registration. 2. Before us, the ld. counsel for the assessee submitted that the applicant-assessee is a University established by Government of Uttarakhand named as Uttarakhand Technical University established on 22nd of January, 2005 by the Act of Uttarakhand Technical University Act, 2005. The applicant-society has been established for affiliating the technical universities and the affiliate colleges established in the State of Uttarakhand and have been serving approximately 33,000 students and 8 constituent colleges
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and 132 affiliated colleges in the State of Uttarakhand. The sole purpose of the assessee is imparting technical education. Looking to this sole object which is charitable in nature in terms of section 2(15), the assessee had applied for registration u/s.12AA along with various documents. However, the ld. CIT (E) had rejected the application on the ground that none appeared in response to the notice for compliance fixed on 13.09.2018. In this regard, Ld. Counsel pointed out that the notice sent from the office of the ld. CIT (E) was sent to Uttaranchal University which is adjacent to the Applleant University, and therefore, no compliance could be made on the date of hearing fixed. In the ground of appeal, the applicant has stated as under: “The letter mentioned by the Ld. CIT (Exemptions) was actually delivered to the applicant university on 23.09.2018. The applicant university is State Government University and there are separate department (Dispatch Department) for receipt of DAK's/ Letters. When investigated for delay in receiving the letter with the dispatch department it came to the notice that the letter was actually inadvertently delivered to other University with same name (Uttaranchal University) situated within 01 Km from the applicant university (a letter to this has been issued by the Finance Controller stating the fact therein enclosed for reference). It is to state that when the letter for fixing hearing was actually received by the university after the date of hearing then in such circumstance no one can neither attend the hearing nor an application for adjournment could be filed before the Ld. CIT (Exemptions).”
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Thus, he submitted that in the interest of natural justice, matter can be restored back to the file of the ld. CIT(E) for hearing the issue of application for registration u/s.12AA afresh and on priority basis and decide the issue expeditiously.
Ld. DR also did not have any objection if the matter is restored back to the file of the ld. CIT (E) to be decided afresh.
After considering the aforesaid circumstances as mentioned by the ld. counsel and the material placed on record, we find that a notice for hearing sent from the office of Ld. CIT (E), Lucknow on 25.08.2011 fixing the date of compliance for 13.09.2018, could not be received in time for the reasons as has been stated in the grounds of appeal and also by the ld. counsel that, the notice sent by the ld. CIT (E) was actually delivered on 01.09.2018 and was wrongly received and delivered to other University with the same name adjacent to the Appellant University. Thus, assessee’s application has been rejected without giving any proper opportunity of being heard. Thus, under these circumstances and in the interest of natural justice, we are remanding this issue of granting of registration u/s.12AA back to the file of the Ld. CIT (E), Lucknow. We further direct that the application should be taken on priority basis and matter should be taken up for hearing by the ld. CIT (E) on 15.01.2020 and applicant assessee is directed to appear before the ld. CIT(E) and submit all the necessary documents and evidences as required and ld. CIT(A) shall decide the
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issue expeditiously after giving due and effective opportunity to the assessee of being heard. 6. In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open Court on 1st November, 2019.
[G.S. PANNU] [AMIT SHUKLA] VICE PRESIDENT JUDICIAL MEMBER DATED: 1st November, 2019 pkk