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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, ‘C’ BENCH : BANGALORE
Shree Nagareshwar Devastan, TMC Road, Nargund-582207 … Appellant Vs. Commissioner of Income-tax (Exemptions) Bangalore. … Respondent Appellant by: Shri R.Chandrashekar, Advocate. Respondent by: Shri Ganapathi R Bhat, CIT(DR). Date of hearing : 10/09/2015. Date of pronouncement: 07/10/2015. O R D E R Per VIJAY PAY RAO, JM :
This appeal by the revenue is directed against the order dated 31/12/2014 of the Director of Income-tax (Exemption)[DIT(E)], Bangalore, passed u/s 12AA of the IT Act,1961.
The assessee has raised the following grounds:
The order passed by the learned CIT(Exemptions), Bangalore is illegal, baseless and opposed to the facts of the case. Proper opportunity of being heard has not been given Shree Nagareshwar Devasthan Page 2 of 4 by the said authority.
2. The learned CIT has erred in not granting registration u/s 12AA of the Income-tax Act. The trust is registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act and has been functioning since past more than 50 years. The books of account of the trust have been regularly audited by a chartered accountant and the returns have been regularly filed with the Charity Commissioner. The assessee has also filed the returns of income for past three years i.e. AY 2011-12, 2011-12 and 2013-14.
The assessee prays time to add any more grounds of appeal before or at the time of hearing.
3. The assessee is a charitable trust registered on 21/11/1959. The assessee trust filed an application in Form 10A on 16/6/2014 seeking registration u/s 12AA. The DIT(E) has denied registration u/s 12AA and thereby rejected the application filed by the assessee on the ground that the assessee has not furnished trust deed along with the objects and other clauses of the Trust Deed. It was also noted that the trust deed submitted by the assessee is unsigned and unregistered.
The learned AR of the assessee has submitted that in pursuance to the application filed by the assessee for registration Shree Nagareshwar Devasthan Page 3 of 4 u/s 12AA, the Inspector of the Department visited the trust office for this purpose and verified the expenses of the trust and its activities. The assessee received a letter from the DIT(E), Bangalore, calling for details on 27/12/2014. Since 28/12/2014 was Sunday and we were asked to appear before the DIT(E) on 30/12/2014, therefore, we sought an adjournment for another date. However, the request for adjournment was not considered and the impugned order was passed by the DIT(E). Thus, the learned AR of the assessee has submitted that the assessee was not given a proper opportunity of being heard and to file the relevant details as sought by the DIT(E) before passing the impugned order.
On the other hand, learned departmental representative has submitted that since it was a time-barring matter, therefore, the DIT(E) was constrained to pass the order on 31/12/2014. The assessee was given due opportunity of appearing on 30/12/2014 but the assessee did not comply with the directions and did not produce requisite details and documents. He has relied upon the order of the DIT(E).
Having considered the rival submissions as well as the relevant material on record, we note that the only opportunity of hearing was given to the assessee to appear on 30/12/2014 by the DIT(E). It is pertinent to note that the assessee requested for Shree Nagareshwar Devasthan Page 4 of 4 another date but which was not considered by the DIT(E)on the ground that it was a time-barring matter. It appears from the impugned order that the DIT(E) passed the order without giving opportunity of proper and effective hearing to the assessee because of the time constraint. Accordingly, in the facts and circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice, we set aside the impugned order and remit the matter to the record of the DIT(E) for deciding the application for registration u/s 12A of the Act afresh after giving an opportunity of hearing to the assessee.
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.