TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (6) TMI 476
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..... upto Assessment Year 2008-09. Subsequently, vide application dated 17.06.2008, assessee made an application to the Director seeking continuation of recognition earlier granted under Section 80G of the Act. By way of the impugned order, the Director has rejected the application on the ground that the applicant-trust was not engaged in any charitable activity. As per the Director, the Profit & Loss Account of the assessee-trust for the last three years shows that "no expenditure on account of the objects of the trust has been incurred/debited by the applicant-trust during the last three years period". Against such a decision of the Director, assessee is in appeal before us. The appellant has raised the following Grounds of appeal :- "Ground I : The DIT(E) erred in rejecting the Renewal application dt. 17-06-2008 for approval of the Institution for the purposes of Sec. 80G long after the expiry of Six months stipulated in Sec. 80G(5) read with rule II AA. The DIT(E) failed to appreciate that (i) All the requirements for Renewal applications were duly accompanied. (ii) Having complied with all the requirements the order on the renewal application was required to be issued bef....
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.... averments made in the Affidavit filed before us. In any case, it is a settled proposition that it is not the length of the delay, but the quality of the reasons for delay, which shall prevail in order to adjudicate whether a condonation of delay is merited. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Collector, Land Acquisition vs. Mst. Katiji & Ors., 167 ITR 471 (SC) held that the substantive cause of justice should prevail over technical considerations, while dealing with the condonation of delay applications. Therefore, considering the entirety of facts and circumstances of the instant case, we deem it fit and proper to condone the delay in filing of the appeal. The aforesaid decision was announced before the parties, and therefore both the counsels were heard with respect to the merits of the dispute. 6. The Learned Representative for the assessee pointed out that on point of law as also on facts, the impugned order of the Director was untenable inasmuch as the Director has exceeded his jurisdiction in denying the continuation of recognition under Section 80G of the Act merely on the ground of his perception that no expenditure was incurred towards the objects of the Trust. ....
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.... the Act enumerates clauses (i) to (v) which contains various conditions for allowing recognition under Section 80G of the Act. The scope and ambit of the inquiries that are permissible to be made by the Director at the stage of evaluating an application under Section 80G of the Act has been considered by the Hon'ble Punjab & Haryana High Court in the case of Sonepat Hindu Educational & Charitable Society (supra). As per the Hon'ble High Court, the scope of inquiry by the Director while dealing with an application under Section 80G of the Act extends to eligibility to exemption under various provisions of the Act, referred to in Sub-section (5) thereof, but does not extend to the actual computation of income under the Act. Similarly, in the subsequent judgment in the case of Sewa Bharti Haryana Pradesh (supra), the Hon'ble Punjab & Haryana High Court reiterated similar proposition. In this view of the matter, we may now examine the objections raised by the Director in the present case in order to deny the recognition sought by the assessee under Section 80G of the Act. As per the Director, the assessee has not spent any money towards the objects of the Trust. In our c....
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....rawn to the list of publications since 1986, which has been brought out by the assessee-trust. All these aspects, in our view, do not lend support to the perception of the Director that the assessee-trust is not incurring expenditure towards its objects. 11. Even with regard to the level of expenditure incurred by the assessee, we have perused the Income & Expenditure statement enclosed by the assessee in the Paper Book for various years and find that the observation of the Director is devoid of factual support. In fact, a perusal of the Income & Expenditure Account reveals that the streams of income are on account of library subscription, sale of books, subscription towards its periodicals, donations and annual subscription fee, etc. All these goes to show that assessee is earning incomes from carrying on activities which are in the field of popularising Astronomy and, therefore, to say that there is no expenditure incurred towards the furtherance of its objects is obviously an incorrect assertion on the part of the Director. In any case, we find that the Director has made only a bald assertion without referring to any specific material in support of his plea that assessee has no....