The Commissioner Of Income Tax, Central v. Dr.d.y. Patil Pratisthan

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION INCOME TAX APPEAL (L) NO.1213 OF 2011 The Commissioner of Income Tax, Central..Appellant. Versus Dr.D.Y. Patil Pratisthan..Respondent. Mr.Vimal Gupta for the appellant.Mr.Vishnu S. Hadade for the respondent. CORAM : J.P. Devadhar &A.R. Joshi, JJ. P.C. : DATE : 22[nd] December 2011 1.Whether the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal was justified in deleting the penalty levied under Section 271(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 is the question raised in this appeal. 2.The assessment year involved is AY 1999-2000. 3.In the assessment year in question, addition of Rs.63,82,503/- was made by the assessing officer by rejecting the claim of the assessee that the said amount was received towards the corpus fund. Similarly, addition of Rs.15,62,500/- was made by the assessing officer on the ground that the deposits received from the students who have left the college were liable to be included in the income of the assessee. The assessing officer imposed penalty under Section 271(1)(c) of the Act. 4.The assessee while accepting the additions made by the assessing officer, contested the levy of penalty by filing an appeal. 5.The appeal filed by the assessee was dismissed by the CIT (A). On further appeal, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal deleted the penalty. Aggrieved by the said order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the Revenue has filed the present appeal. 6.In the present case, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal has deleted the penalty by recording a finding that even in the past the donations received were treated as donations towards corpus fund and merely because in the assessment year in question the assessee could not produce the receipt book, it cannot be inferred that the claim made by the assessee is not bona fide especially when the said amounts have been accounted towards the corpus fund. In our opinion, the decision of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in deleting the penalty is based on finding of fact and no question of law arises from the order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. 7.Similarly, the penalty levied on account of addition of Rs.15,62,500/- is concerned, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal deleted the penalty on the ground that the assessee bona fide believed that there was always a chance that the ex-students may in future come back to collect the deposits made by them while studying in the institutions belonging to the assessee. In these circumstances, the assessee cannot be said to have concealed income, especially when all the particulars were disclosed by the assessee. In these circumstances, deletion of the penalty levied under Section 271(1)(c) of the Act cannot be faulted. 8.The appeal is accordingly dismissed with no order as to costs. (A.R. Joshi, J.) (J.P. Devadhar, J.)