TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (10) TMI 607
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....ture of charity. 3. Erred in allowing donation of Rs. 5,45,39,440/- as application of income not appreciating that activities are not in nature of charity as it is hit by the proviso to section 2(15) of the Act. 4. Erred in allowing corpus donation of Rs. 16,46,21,564/- without appreciating that activities are not in nature of charity as it is hit by the proviso to section 2(15) of the Act. 5. Erred in allowing claim of accumulation u/s. 11(2) of the Act not appreciating that assessee's activities are not in the nature of charity as it is hit by proviso to section 2(15) of the Act. 6. Erred in allowing claim of accumulation u/s. 11(1)(a) of the Act not appreciating that assessee's activities are not in the nature of charity as it is hit by proviso to section 2(15) of the Act." 2. At the time of hearing of the instant appeal the Ld. Senior Counsel appearing for the assessee submitted before us that the issue in respect of Ground Nos. 1, 2, 5 & 6 are covered in assessee's own case in favour of the assessee by the order passed by the Ld. CIT(A) for A.Ys. 2011-12 to 2014-15 which has been upheld by the Hon'ble Tribunal in Revenue&#....
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....Year. The case of the assessee is this that the assessee's object would not fall under the 6th limb of Section 2(15) i.e. any other objects of general public utility. Further that the assessee is entitled to exemption under Section 11 and 12 of the Act. However, such contention of the assessee has not been accepted by the Learned Assessing Officer and relying upon the Circular No. 11 dated 19.12.2008 such claim has been denied to the assessee which has, in turn, been reversed by the First Appellate Authority. Hence the instant appeal before us. 6. The crux of the submission made by the Departmental Representative before us is this that providing training of Sudarshan Kriya as per the syllabus of Shri Pandit Ravi Shanker, a famous meditation Guru through his sponsored charitable trusts cannot be termed at per with "Relief to the Poor", "Education" and "Medical Relied", rather the same would fall under the last limb of the proviso of Section 2(15) of the Act i.e. "the advancement of any other object of general utility". According to him streamlining the definition of "charitable purpose" and to limiting the scope of the phrase "advancement of any other object of general ....
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....pages 243 to 254 of the paper book: "a) To promote research and development on the impact of the Art of Living techniques on the physical and mental states of people as formulated by Yoga Shiromani Sri Sri Pandit Ravishankar in the realm of Yoga and Meditation. b) To promote a scientific study and research of ancient literature and Yoga. c) To afford adequate training facilities to scholars to develop scientific analysis of the scriptures of yoga and the interpretation of ancient practice. d) To organise and co-ordinate programme and activities which promote evolution of Ideal Men and Women and create on Ideal Society in line with Natural Law. e) To organise, establish and or maintain suitable research laboratories and or health centers or Yogic therapy, Naturopathy and/or Ayurvedic and Siddha Systems of Medicine health products, asanas, exercise and/or health resorts, and provide benefits thereof to all sections of people, and also promote other systems of Indian Medicine. f) To establish, Journals, periodicals and leaflets which may be necessary for the promotion of its objectives. g) To establish adult education cent....
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....y large number of general populations of this country without looking into the caste, creed of the person who participates in those programmes. The donations, received by the Trust are voluntarily contribution and that they are not fees in nature. Even the general public who have participated have contributed to this organization; there have been corporate who have also been benefited out of these programmes for their own staff, such programs are conducted at their request wherein, the appellant Trust introduced itself as an organization, which is voluntary in nature; some contributor may have treated the same as course fees and have also deducted Taxes at source on these transactions. He vehemently argued that since some of these corporates though have treated them as course fee, the same does not change the status of the Trust being charitable in nature. Such contributions have been treated in the books of accounts as voluntary contributions only. 7.2. If the predominant object is to carry out as charitable purpose and not to earn profit, the organization would not lose its charitable character merely because some profits arise from the activity as argued by the Ld. AR a....
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....as further argued on behalf of the assessee that there is no change in the objects or activities of the appellant during the year under consideration in comparison with the activities carried on during the previous year relevant to the A.Y. 2009-10 & 2010-11 as also in the earlier years and based on which the Registration Certificate under section 12A is continued and was affective for the year under appeal. 7.6. In the absence of any material changed, the revenue is not justified to take a different view of the matter as also submitted by the Learned AR. In this aspect he has relied upon a judgment passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the matter of Radhasoami Satsang-vs-CIT, reported in 193 ITR 321 (SC) as well as the judgment passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the matter of Parashuram Pottery Works Ltd-vs-ITO, reported in (1977) 106 ITR 1(SC). 7.7 As we find that according to the Learned AO as per the amended provision not only direct activities in the nature of trade commerce or business would make the assessee's activities outside the purview of charitable purpose, but also the activity of rendering any services in relation to any trade, commerce o....
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....as also been denied on the premise that once the proviso of section 2(15) is applicable to the assessee, benefit u/s. 11 & 12 cannot be allowed. The addition/rejection of above claim in turn was deleted by the first appellate authority in the appeal preferred by the assessee. However, the addition of Rs. 3,36,416/- in respect of interest on Income Tax refund, the rejection of depreciation to the extent of Rs. 89,26,569/- and the interest levied of Rs. 5,63,40,61,719/- u/s. 234B of the Act though was allowed finally, all for statistical purposes, has not been challenged before us by the Revenue. 7.9. In appeal, the Yoga or Sudarshan Kriya has been held to be covered under the clause "donation" and "medical relief" and not coming under the purview of the last limb of the 2(15) of the Act i.e. advancement of general public utility by the Learned CIT(A). It was further observed that the activities of the appellant are as per the objects of the appellant and the appellant trust has trained more number of persons than the doners in Sudharsan kriya/yoga without charging any fees. 8. We have heard the respective parties and perused the relevant materials available on reco....
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....h situations Increased Mental Clarity) Note on Yoga and Sudarshan Kriva Yoga is a noun and it could be understood as a spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation. It is believed that Maharashi Patanjali the Father of Yoga compiled and defined Yoga in his book on Yoga sutras and advocated an eight fold Yoga popularly known as the Ashtanga Yoga and they are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahi Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. These components advocate certain restraints and observance physical discipline, breath regulations, restraining the sense organs, contemplation, meditation and Samadhi. These steps are believed to have a potential for improvement of physical health by enhancing circulation of oxygenated blood in the body, retraining the sense organs thereby inducing tranquility and serenity of mind. What is Sudarshan Kriya : The Sudarshan Kriya incorporates specific natural rhythms of breath which harmonize the rhythms of the body and emotions and bring them in tune with the rhythm nature. The breath connects ....
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.... at large. It further appears on record that pursuant to the said objective of the appellant trust, it has made inter trust donations to Patanjali Yog Peeth to support their endeavors of imparting yoga education by means of organizing yog shivirs/camps across the country on daily/weekly/monthly basis in a systemized/organized manner in order to provide medical relief to people who cannot afford modern medical method or have been subjected to ill effects of modern medicine. It is also an admitted fact that the assessee trust has created a very large number of general public population of this country without making discrimination on caste or creed of the participants in those programs. Propagation of yoga as predominant objective in the case of the appellant trust very much falls within the definition of "charitable purpose" provided under section 2(15) of the Act as it is also "imparting of education". There is no dispute that the assessee has been continuously undertaking the following activities: (a) Providing medical relief to various sections of the society, including but not limited to providing free medicines and treatment by organizing various shivirs/camps on a reg....
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....positive relief to certain ailments and promotes wellness and well being generally. While doing so, the Hon'ble High Court observed as follows: "3. As is evident from the above extract, the Tribunal had relied upon its ruling in Divya Yog Mandir Trust v. Jt. CIT [2013] 37 taxmann.com 227/60 SOT 154 (URO)/[2015] 153 ITD 368 (Delhi - Trib.). In that decision, the judgments in Kashyap Ved Research Foundation v. CIT [2011] 131 ITD 370/12 taxmann.com286 (Cochin) and CIT v. Rajneesh Foundation [2006] 280 ITR 533/[2005] 148 Taxman 396 (Bom.) were relied upon. It was held that yoga was one of the six systems of Vedic philosophy developed by Maharishi Patanjali, who was characterized as "The Father of Yoga" and who had compiled and refined various aspects of the science/practice systematically in "Yoga Sutras". The Tribunal concluded upon analysis of the practice of yoga that it confers positive relief to certain ailments such as asthma, migraine, hypertension, stress, etc. and promotes wellness and well being generally. Having regard to the observations, the Court is of the opinion that the mere inclusion of yoga specifically w.e.f. 01.04.2016 did not per se imply that it came....
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....ss than Rs. 2000/-. 95% of the donors participated in that particular training, donated less than Rs. 5000/- and only 4.32% of donors made donations more than Rs. 5000/- Thus it reflects that maximum donations have been received from the persons giving donations in the range of Rs. 501 to Rs. 1000/-, Rs. 2001 to Rs. 3000/- and Rs. 3001/- to Rs. 4000/-. It is relevant to mention that out of the total donations of Rs. 3,57,376/- only 588 donors being 0.16% of it donated Rs. 25,001/- and above. These donations were received from the participants of the training programme of Sudarshan Kriya as the fact reveals from the records before us. During the appellate proceeding, the assessee trust submitted a further tabular sheet correlating the activities of the trust to the receipts thereof for the year ended 31.03.2011 which as follows: Sl. No. Range Total Donations No. of Donors % of Donors % Cumulative 1 1-200 42,08,273 26,552 7.43% 7.43% 2 201-500 2,08,71,143 56,127 15.71% 23.14% 3 501-1000 10,87,10,735 1,21,084 33.88% 57.02% 4 1001-1500 4,18,12,615 33,179 9.28% 66.30% 5 1501-2000 2,46,17,8....
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....mptions)-vs-Patanjali Yogpeeth (NYAS). In that case the assessee received the amount from certain subscribers/donors in yoga camps who have provided corresponding benefits as appose to others. The Hon'ble Court held that the same could not be the basis for holding that membership fee was not a donation and had to be treated as income liable to tax and therefore the Tribunal's findings in favour of the assessee has not been interfered with. Further that, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of ACIT-vs-Surat Art Silk Cloth Manufacturers reported in 121 ITR 124 (SC) has been pleased to observe that expression 'for the purpose of profit' implies that the predominant object should be to earn profit. Further to determine the predominant object, it is required to examine the object of the society and not quantum of surplus though such quantum may become relevant in certain circumstance. With the essence of inspiration from the ratio laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the aforesaid judgment conclusion can be drawn that the contribution on which TDS have been deducted amounting to Rs. 4.5 crores being 6.6% of the total contribution Rs. 68 crores, the appellant c....
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.... not from the accumulated income the assessee was entitled to such deduction/exemption. The assessee on this aspect relied upon the judgement passed by the Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the matter of the DIT (Exemption) vs. M/s. Bagri Foundation where the court observed as follows "what follows is that the amount accumulated cannot be donated to another trust. However, the said explanation does not place a total embargo on donations by one trust to another. It does not prohibit the trust from donating its entire income in a relevant year to another trust, as is the law as noticed in the Division Bench in Shri Ram Memorial Foundation. The embargo is only on the income of the trust not applied in the relevant year but accumulated set apart being donated to another trust..." 10.1. The assessee further relied upon the judgement passed in the matter of Gagan Education Society-vs-ACIT, reported in (2011) 131 ITD 442 wherein the assessee society donated certain sum to another charitable society out of current year's income and claimed deduction. The Hon'ble ITAT observed that the restriction imposed by section 11(3)(d) applies to income under section 11(2) and ....