Commissioner Of Income Tax-I, Jaipur v. M/S Balaji Charitable Trust, Jaipur

(1) DB INCOME TAX APPEAL NO. 358/2011 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHANBENCH AT JAIPUR D.B. INCOME TAX APPEAL NO.358/2011 COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX-I, JAIPURVs. M/s BALAJI CHARITABLE TRUST, JAIPUR DATE: 16.12.2011 HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. ARUN MISHRA'HONBLE MR. JUSTICE NARENDRA KUMAR JAIN-I Mr. Anuroop Singhi withMr. O.P. Pareek, for the appellant. **** Heard on the question of admission. The order passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Jaipur has been challenged by filing the instantappeal. The question raised is whether respondent could have been granted approval under Section 80G of the IncomeTax Act, 1961. The factual matrix indicates that donation ofRs.7,00,000 was given to Mahabir Prasad Jatia CharitableTrust, Jatia Chambers, 60, Dr. V.B. Gandhi Marg, Mumbai afterobtaining receipt dated 20.08.2007; a copy of the receipt wasproduced before the Assessing Officer; a certificate was alsoobtained from the donee trust for exemption under Section80G and a copy of certificate was also furnished before theAssessing Officer, however, literature of the trust was notfurnished before the Assessing Officer. (2) DB INCOME TAX APPEAL NO. 358/2011 The Assessing Officer found that the activities ofthe trust were in violation to its objects and not for thepurposes as laid down in Section 2(15) of the Income Tax Act,1961 and conditions laid down under Section 80G of the Actwere also not fulfilled. The Income Tax Appellate Authority has allowedthe appeal while making the following discussion in para 5 ofthe order:- “5. Considering the above submissions wefind substance in the contention of the Ld.ARthat when the donee trust M/s Mahaveer PrasadJatia Charitable Trust to whom the appellanthad donated Rs.7 Lac was issued certificateunder Section 80G by the competent authorityof the department, there was no reason withthe Ld.CIT to doubt the objects of the doneetrust as not charitable only because noliterature of the donee trust was available withthe assessee during the proceedings on thebasis of which Ld.CIT drew an inference that theappellant had not verified the objects of thedonee trust before giving the said donation. Wealso agree with the submissions of Ld.AR thatthere is no bar on making donations out ofavailable funds of the trust to any extent asS.80G does not prohibit the same expressly andspecifically. So far as the official minutes of themeeting held by Direct Taxes AdvisoryCommittee(Central) on the issue of donationsout of Corpus Fund, referred by the Ld.CIT isconcerned, the Ld.CIT has not pointed out thatthe advise of the Direct Tax Advisory Committee(Central) on the issue has been implemented bythe legislature or any other competentauthority. We are thus of the view that theminutes of the said committee on the issue isnot binding in nature. Under thesecircumstances, we thus while setting aside therefusal order in question direct the Ld.CITconcerned to grant approval of S.80G as prayedfor by the appellant before him. The ground isaccordingly allowed.” Shri Anuroop Singhi, Counsel appearing on behalfof appellant has submitted that literature of the donee charitable trust was not submitted, therefore, it was notappropriate to give the benefit of Section 80G of the IncomeTax Act. After hearing the Counsel for the appellant atlength, we are of the opinion that receipt was filed; certificateunder Section 80G of the Act of donee was also submitted,which has been relied upon. It is a matter of sufficiency of theevidence to grant benefit and it cannot be said that findingsrecorded by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal are perverse orwhich could not have been arrived at, in the facts andcircumstances of the case. We do not find any substantial question of lawinvolved in this appeal and the same is, accordingly,dismissed. (NARENDRA KUMAR JAIN-I),J. (ARUN MISHRA),CJ. /KKC/