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TMI Blog2021 (8) TMI 139X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... therefore, right and justified in cancelling the registration under Sections 12AA and 80G of the Act. High Court completely erred in entertaining the appeal under Section 260A of the Act. It did not even attempt to deal with the answers to the questions as aforesaid and whether the conclusions drawn by the CIT and the Tribunal were in any way incorrect or invalid. Appeal allowed - restore the order passed by the CIT and the Tribunal. - CIVIL APPEAL NO. 4451 OF 2021 - - - Dated:- 2-8-2021 - UDAY UMESH LALIT And AJAY RASTOGI , JJ. For the Appellant : Mr. N. Venkataraman, ASG Mr. Arjun Garg, Adv.Ms. Vimla Sinha, Adv. Mr. Raj Bahadur Yadav, AOR For the Respondent : Mr. Abhijit Sengupta, AOR JUDGMENT Uday Umesh Lalit, J. 1. This appeal challenges the judgment and order dated 09-10-2018 passed by the High Court at Calcutta in ITA No.116 of 2018 setting aside (i) the order dated 25.02.2016 passed by Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) ( CIT for short) canceling registration of the respondent Trust ( Trust , for short) under Section 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ( the Act for short); and (ii) the order dated 13.09.2017 passed by the Income Tax Appella ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... under the head Building. Q. 14. In response to the earlier question you have stated that you were instructed . Who gave you the instruction? Ans. I can remember only one name right now, that is Shri Gulab Pincha, Mob No. 9831015157. He was the key person for providing a large part of bogus donation received which was immediately returned back to the different parties in the guise of payments towards capital expenditure in building. We do now know any details in respect of the donors on behalf of whom Shri Gulab Pincha acted as a middle man. Shri Pincha provided us with the details of the donors, cheque of the donations, letters of corpus donations etc. He also provided us with the names and bank a/c. details of the seven (7) persons, mentioned in Answer 13 to whom money has to be returned back through RTGS. He also collected the money receipts/80G certifications on behalf of the donors. Q. 19. The ledger copy for the period from 01.04.2014 to 04.09.2014 in respect of General Fund of your trust having details of the donors is being shown to you to identify the bogus donations along with bogus donors. Ans. After going through the list of the donors appeared in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n entry and fictitious. f) Activities of the trust are not genuine as well as not being carried out in accordance with its declared objects. Assessee s case is covered within the 60th limb of Section 12AA(3). g) Even ingenuine and illegal activities carried on by assessee through money laundering do not come within the conceptual framework of charity vis-a-vis activity of general public utility envisaged the Income Tax Act as laid down in Section 2(15). The CIT, therefore, invoked the provisions of Section 12AA(3) of the Act and cancelled the registration granted under Section 12AA of the Act w.e.f. 01.04.2012. Consequently, the approval granted to the Trust under Section 80G of the Act was also cancelled. 6. The matter was carried in appeal by the Trust by filing Income Tax Appeal Nos.756 912 /Kol/2016 before the Tribunal. After considering the entire material on record, the Tribunal concluded as under: 13. We have given a very careful consideration to the rival submissions. It is clear from the statements of Secretary and Treasurer of SHG and PH that they were accepting cash and giving bogus donations. In the statement recorded in the survey conducted i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erred by the Trust were dismissed. 7. The Trust being aggrieved, filed Income Tax Appeal No.116 of 2018 before the High Court. By its order dated 04.07.2018, following questions were framed as substantial questions of law: (i) Whether the Tribunal and the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) were right in law in directing the cancellation of registration of the Appellant granted under Section 12AA to the Appellant Trust on the ground that the Trust had received bogus donation from School of Human Genetics and Population Health? (ii) Whether statement recorded in the course of survey under Section 133A of the Act has any probative or evidentiary value? 8. It was submitted on behalf of Trust that it had received donations from various donors and the Trust was under no obligation to verify the source of the funds of the donor or whether those funds were acquired by performance of any unlawful activity. It was further submitted that the funds were applied for the purposes of trust and that there was no evidence to suggest that those funds were applied for any illegal or immoral purposes or that the Trust was a namesake and some other activities were being carried ou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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