ANANDA SIKSHA NIKETAN,KOLKATA vs. CIT - EXEMPTIONS, KOLKATA, KOLKATA

The assessee is a Society under the Societies Registration Act of the State of West Bengal. It is engaged in educating poorest section of the Society. It is the claim of the Assessee that the Society is run by one Mr. Baber Ali who is an Indian student and teacher from Murshidabad in West Bengal. It is the further claim of the Assessee that Mr.Baber Ali was called the “youngest headmaster in the world” by BBC in October 2009, at the age of sixteen. He had begun teaching at nine years Siksha Niketan 2 of age, mostly as a game, and then decided to continue teaching other children at a larger scale. It is claimed that the School continues to be run as an outdoor school and counts a total of ten teachers including Baber Ali himself, all of them students at school or college who volunteer to teach at the school. It is further claimed that there are 800 children learning at the school, starting from four or five years of age and because the school is tuition-free makes it affordable for the poor in this economically deprived area, so that the school has been recognized to have helped increase literacy rates in the area. It is claimed that In Murshidabad there had been no governmental or private schools. Pupils come from nearby villages and walk up to four kilometers in order to attend their lessons. It appears that the school recognized by the local authorities.

The Society made an application for registration u/s12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (Act) before the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Kolkata (CIT(E) for short) on 09.09.2014. The Society appeared before the CIT(E) and made submission and also submitted all documents to support its application.

The CIT(E) however rejected the application vide his order dated 31.03.2015 for the reason that the verification of the activity of the society could not be carried out. It is the plea of the Assessee before us that all necessary documents and evidence were produced before the CIT(E) and therefore the rejection of the application was not justified. The assessee being aggrieved by the rejection of the registration u/s.12AA of the Act has preferred this appeal.

At the time of hearing before us, Ld. Counsel for the assesee filed a paper book containing all the documents that were called for by the CIT (E) in the Siksha Niketan 3 proceedings u/s12AA of the Act. The limited request of the Ld. Counsel for the asessee was to set aside the order of the CIT and remand to the CIT (Exemption) for a fresh consideration of the assessee’s application for grant of registration after taking into consideration, the documents filed before the Tribunal and also documents as may be called for or required by the CIT (Exemption).

The request of the Ld. Counsel for the assessee is accepted. In this regard it is noticed that the assessee did not have adequate opportunity of being heard before the CIT (Exemption), as there was only one hearing before the CIT(E). We accordingly set aside the order of CIT (Exemption) and remand the issue with regard to grant of registration u/s.12AA of the Act to the file of the CIT (Exemption) for fresh consideration after affording the opportunity of being heard.

As far as is concerned the grant of recognition u/s.80G (5) was denied because of absence of registration u/s12AA of the Act. Since the question of registration u/s12AA of the Act is being remanded to the CIT (Exemption), the impugned order of the CIT (Exemption) is also set aside and the question of grant of approval u/s.80G (5) of the Act is set aside to the CIT (Exemption) for fresh consideration.

In the result, both the appeals treated as allowed for statistical purposes. Order Pronounced in the Open Court on 19.10.2016