2014 (5) TMI 858

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.... persons (AOP) between the petitioner (CTCI Overseas Corporation Limited, Hongkong) and CINDA Engineering and Construction Private Limited, India in terms of the consortium agreement dated 06.03.2009. 2. Insofar as the alternative prayer questioning the jurisdiction of the Authority for Advance Rulings to adjudicate on the existence of an AOP is concerned, the learned counsel for the petitioner has not pressed the same before us. 3. On the question of AOP, the Authority for Advance Rulings has concluded as under:-             "11. The Revenue has argued that the case of the applicant is covered under the provisions of the Act as the Government of India has not entered into a Ta....

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....     "33. Therefore, it emerges from the above discussion that the Association of Persons is one in which two or more persons join together for a common purpose or common action and there is a joint management or joint action by the said two or more persons. In order to treat persons as an association, it is necessary that the members must have a common intention and must act jointly for fulfilling the object of their joint enterprise.             34. However, it is also necessary to bear in mind that the purpose of treating two or more persons as an association of persons is to impose tax on the income that may be attributed to their joint enterprise. It is, thus....

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....sp;   "there is no formula of universal application as to what facts, how many of them and of what nature are necessary to come to a conclusion that there is an association of persons within the meaning of Section 3".           35. It is obvious that unless the facts lead to a conclusion that there is sufficient joint participation for a common enterprise, it would not be appropriate to treat two or more persons as an Association of Persons for the purposes of assessing them as a separate taxable entity. A mere cooperation of one person with another in serving one's business objective would not be sufficient to constitute an Association of Persons merely because the business inte....