TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (5) TMI 1159
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....ducation Society, which is an educational society and is also a trust registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act. The writ-applicant shall hereinafter to be referred to as 'the society'. The writ-applicant society runs various educational institutions including one N.G.Patel polytechnic college (hereinafter to be referred to as "N.G.Patel polytechnic"). It is not in dispute that the writ-applicant Trust files regular returns before the Income Tax Authorities and which are scrutinized from time to time by the Assessing Officer for passing orders of assessment. 2. According to the writ-applicant, the various educational institutions run by the society would receive sizable amounts by way of cash through fees paid by the students. Only in order to maintain the separation of funds, N.G.Patel polytechnic desired to open a bank account. According to the counsel for the writ-applicant, bank insisted on a separate Permanent Account Number ('PAN' for short) of the customer only upon which a separate account can be opened. N.G.Patel polytechnic therefore applied for PAN which was duly issued by the Income-tax department which eventually led the N.G.Patel polytechnic to o....
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.... of payment and assessment of tax and N.G.Patel polytechnic had not filed the return despite the fact that sizable cash amount was deposited in its bank account. 6. Section 139A of the Act pertains to permanent account number. Sub-section (1) of section 139A provides various categories of persons who are required to pay tax or for some other reason required to furnish return of income, would apply to the Assessing Officer for allotment of a PAN. Under sub-section (1B), the Central Government may for the purpose of collecting any information which may be useful for or relevant to the purposes of the Act, may by notification require any class or classes of persons who shall apply to the Assessing Officer for the allotment of the PAN. Under sub-section (2), the Assessing Officer having regard to the nature of transactions as may be prescribed, may also allot a PAN to any other person following the prescribed procedure. Sub-section (3) of section 139A provides that any person not falling under subsection (1) or sub-section (2), may also apply to the Assessing Officer for allotment of PAN, upon which, the Assessing Officer shall allot the same. 7. It can thus be seen that mere all....
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....e notice of reopening, rejected the same. In facts of the case, we would like to request the Assessing Officer to reexamine the objections in peculiar facts pointed out in such objections as well as those urged before us. For the above purpose, following directions are issued : (i) It will be open for the writ-applicant to file supplementary objections with additional documents if so desired, latest by 25.09.2017 before the Assessing Officer. (ii) The Assessing Officer shall dispose of the objections of the writ-applicant which are already on record and additional objections if so raised in terms of above para (i). (iii) For such purpose, impugned order dated 29.08.2016 is set aside. 9. Till the Assessing Officer passes a fresh order disposing of the objections of the writ-applicant, interim relief granted pending the petition directing the Assessing Officer not to pass the final order on assessment shall continue. 10. Petition is disposed of." 4. The writ-applicant is a Trust running various educational institutions which include N.G. Patel Polytechnic (for short, the 'Polytechnic'). For the Assessment Year 2009-10, the writ-applicant- Trust filed its return of in....
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....s.143(2), and accordingly, orders u/s.143(3) were passed accepting the returned income as the assessed income. Accordingly, it is empathetically submitted that the Polytechnic has never been treated as a separate assessable entity under the Income Tax Act. 6. It is submitted that in the first round of litigation before this Court, the Court, vide its order dated 11.09.2017, remanded the matter back to the Assessing Officer for deciding the objections raised by the writ-applicant to the effect that the transaction of deposit of cash being the amount of tuition fees received from the students throughout the year, whether the said had duly been recorded in the audited books of accounts of the writ-applicant Trust, and accordingly, shown in the return of income filed by the writ-applicant Trust. 7. Despite the directions issued by this Court in the order dated 11.09.2017 (order of first round of litigation) to dispose of the objection in an objective manner, the respondent, without following the directions of this Court in true letter and spirit, has disposed of the objections by stating that the matter is required to be examined with reference to the books of accounts and the bankin....
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.... patently illegal, bad in law and without the fundamental requirement that the income should have escaped the assessment for acquiring the jurisdiction under Section 147/148. 10. It is further submitted that in the order dated 11.09.2017, this Court made it very clear that, any person cannot be treated as an independent assessable entity only on the basis of the PAN. The natural consequences of the above observation on law point would be that the respondent is first required to establish legally and factually that the Polytechnic is a separate assessable entity under the Income Tax Act. The respondent, without coming to a conclusion that the Polytechnic is a separate assessable entity, tried to justify the reopening notice issued u/s.148 in the name of the Polytechnic. It is most humbly submitted that no valid proceeding u/s.148 can be initiated by issuing a notice on a person who is not assessable as a distinct person under the Income Tax Act. The allegation of the respondent that the writ-applicant has filed return of income in its alleged PAN for the Assessment Years 2005-06 to 2007-08, was clearly denied by the writ-applicant in its affidavit. The writ-applicant further in its....