CELIAC SOCIETY OF INDIA,NEW DELHI vs. CIT(EXEMPTION), NEW DELHI

Today, this matter was fixed as assessee has filed a petition for early hearing of the matter in 12 A of the Income Tax Act was not granted to the assessee trust.

The assessee at the time of hearing sought adjournment stating that authorised representative of the appellant is suffering from high viral fever and he will not be able to prepare the present case before the coordinate bench. The assessee also submitted the copy of the doctor’s prescription. However, looking at the matter we thought it not fit to grant the request of the assessee for adjournment and we proceed to decide the appeal itself as per request of the learned Departmental Representative.

The brief fact of the case is that assessee is a society, which is registered under the provisions of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in the state of Delhi as per Registration Certificate dated 12/10/2018. The assessee is specifically having the object of to create awareness about celiac disease Page | 1 and related condition and to represent the needs of celiac disease at national level. The assessee preferred an application in Form No. 10A on 5/12/2018 and further on 11/12/2018 in Form No. 10G before the CIT (Exemption), Delhi for granting the registration u/s 12A of the Income Tax Act and recognition u/s 80G of the Act. Attending the above application the learned CIT(Exemption) issued letter dated 13/10/2018 requesting assessee to submit certain documents in support of its claim for registration u/s 12A of the Income Tax Act. On perusal of the detail, he found that applicant has shown the income from subscription received from member, event revenue and sponsorship received on which tax deduction at source u/s 194 and 194C has been made. Therefore, he issued a specific show cause notice on 24/06/2019 to justify the professional fees received from the different parties on which the TDS is deducted. The assessee was also asked to furnish confirmation of the parties. He noted that assessee has received a total sponsorship amount of Rs. 2490000/- out of the total receipts of Rs. 2750500/- in Financial Year 2018-19 which constitutes more than 90% of the total receipt and therefore he held that sponsorship which was never voluntarily. Therefore, he held that the genuineness of the charitable activities cannot be established and therefore the condition for granting registration u/s 12AA is not satisfied. Accordingly, he rejected the application. Consequently he passed an order u/s 12AA (1) (b) read with section 12A and 80G(5)(vi) of the Income Tax Act on 28/06/2019. Therefore, the assessee is aggrieved and has preferred this appeal.

The Ld AR refereed to the statements of facts filed along with the appeal and mentioned the object of the trust and event in which sponsorship was received. He submitted that activities of the assessee are charitable u/s 2(15) of the Act and they are genuine.

The learned Departmental Representative vehemently submitted that assessee is carrying on the activity, which was found to be non-genuine by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption), Delhi, and therefore the application has been rejected.

We have carefully considered the grounds of appeal