Section 12AB registration for charitable trust cannot be denied on donor checks, expenditure levels, or premises ownership.

At the stage of registration under section 12AB, the enquiry is confined to whether the trust's objects are charitable and its activities are genuine. The Commissioner cannot expand the review into the sufficiency of fodder expenditure, verification of donors' returns or creditworthiness, or ownership of the premises used for the gaushala, because those matters fall outside the limited registration enquiry. A minor mismatch in the number of cows was treated as an explanation issue, not a defect affecting genuineness. On that basis, the rejection of registration was held unsustainable and the trust was entitled to registration under section 12AB.

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Issues: Whether rejection of the assessee trust's application for regular registration under section 12AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was valid when the Commissioner questioned the genuineness of activities by relying on alleged mismatch in cow numbers, low fodder expenditure, donor verification, and ownership of the gaushala premises.

Analysis: At the stage of registration under section 12AB, the enquiry is confined to the charitable nature of the objects and the genuineness of the activities. The Commissioner cannot conduct a roving enquiry into adequacy of expenditure, source and creditworthiness of donors, or matters that properly belong to assessment proceedings. The explanation that the website figure reflected capacity and not the actual number of cows was accepted as a minor inconsistency not affecting genuineness. The level of fodder expenditure was held to be irrelevant for registration. The verification of the donor's return and source of donation was held to be beyond the permissible scope of enquiry. The absence of ownership of the land and building by the trust was also found not to be a statutory bar, because charitable activities may be carried on from premises owned by trustees or otherwise made available to the trust.

Conclusion: The rejection of registration was unsustainable, and the assessee was entitled to registration under section 12AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Ratio Decidendi: For granting registration to a charitable trust, the authority must confine itself to the charitable nature of the objects and the genuineness of the activities, and cannot deny registration on matters such as expenditure sufficiency, donor creditworthiness, or ownership of the premises used for the charitable activity.

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