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2017 (11) TMI 630

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..... fore we fail to understand as to how the said object is for the benefit of a particular community only. Moreover only one object out of several objects cannot give a religious or communal colour to the assessee society. The rest of the objects aimed at developing the moral fabric of the society, help poor and needy children in their education and running charitable dispensaries and hospitals for the public at large are all charitable activities for the benefit of the general public. Also on perusing the financial statements of the assessee society for the preceding three years i.e. year ending on 31-03-13,31-03-14 & 31-03-15 that all expenditures incurred are only in the context of running its chariable dispensary by way of purchasing medicines, paying staff salary and incurring misc. expenses only. No expenditure explicitly benefitting the Aggarwal community has been incurred by the assessee. Therefore we find no merit in the contention of the Revenue that the objects of the assessee society had religious contours and were benefitting a particular community only. Further the contention of the Revenue that the assessee was spending only a small portion of its receipts on the .....

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..... ed had religious contours, which was in contravention to the provisions of section 80G(5)(iii) of the Act and was also hit by Explanation-3 to sub-section (5) of section 80G, which precludes purposes of religious nature from the coverage of charitable purpose. The Ld.CIT(E) also denied approval for the reason that the assessee trust was spending meagre amount on its charitable activities. 3. Aggrieved by the same, the assessee has filed present appeal before us raising following grounds: 1. That the impugned order is bad on facts and law. 2. That the CIT (Exemptions) has wrongly and illegally rejected the application filed u/s 80G(5)(vi) against the facts and circumstances of the case. 3. That the Appellant craves permission to add, amend, elucidate any ground of appeal at the time of hearing. 4. During the course of hearing before us, the Ld. counsel for assessee stated that both the contentions of the Ld.CIT(E) that the purpose for which the assessee trust was established was religious and was that it was spending meagre amount on charitable activities was misplaced. The Ld. counsel for assessee drew our attention to the objects of the trust as reproduce .....

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..... Ld. counsel for assessee stated that none of the clauses of the objects of the assessee society was for the benefit of any particular religious community or caste and this contention of the Ld. counsel for assessee, therefore, was incorrect. The Ld. counsel for assessee thereafter drew our attention to the Explanation-3 of section 80G(5), which reads as under: Explanation 3.- In this section, charitable purpose does not include any purpose the whole or substantially the whole of which is of a religious nature . 7. The Ld. counsel for assessee stated that none of the objects of the assessee society of the assessee society, more specifically those stated at clauses (a), (b) and (c) of the Act could be said to be of a religious nature as pointed out above. The Ld. counsel for assessee, therefore, stated that the assessee was not even hit by Explanation-3 of section 80G(5) of the Act. The Ld. counsel for assessee, therefore, contended that the assessee society was established for a charitable purpose and not for the purpose of benefiting any particular religious community or caste and was thus eligible for grant of approval u/s 80G(5) of the Act. Reliance was placed on the .....

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..... was not entitled to grant of approval u/s 80G(5) of the Act. 10. We have heard both the parties, gone through the orders of the authorities below and also perused the documents to which our attention was drawn. We find merit in the contention of the Ld. counsel for assessee. Undoubtedly, the approval u/s 80G(5) is granted to institutions or funds which are established for charitable purpose and it rules out funds or institutions which are established for the benefit of a particular religious community or caste or objects which are of religious nature. Considering the objects of the assessee society from this angle we find that none of the objects of the assessee carry a religious contour or are for the benefit of any particular community or caste. As for the object at clause (a) of fulfilling the aims of Agroha Vikas Trust Maharaja Agarsein it has not been shown to us as to how it benefits only the Agarwal community. Furher, as rightly pointed out by the Ld. counsel for assessee, propagating and inculcating religious feelings, brotherhood and nationalism among Aggarwal community only aim at bringing together members of the Agarwal community and developing feeling of nationali .....

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