TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (8) TMI 223
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....e section 10(23C)(via) of the Act. The appellant crave to add, amend, modify and delete any of the above grounds at the time or before the time of hearing." 3. The only dispute raised by the assessee is against the rejection of its application for continuation of registration under section 10(23C)(via) of the Act. 4. We have considered the submissions of both sides and perused the material available on record. The brief facts of the case pertaining, as emanating from the record, are that the assessee is a co-operative society formed under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, and was granted registration on 01/09/1964. The assessee was formed to give members of the society and citizens better medical facilities at reasonable charges and provide decent hospital facilities, dispensaries, and other up-to-date scientific medical and surgical amenities. The assessee has also been registered under section 12A of the Act since 28/12/1988, as well as section 80G of the Act, which registration is continuing to be in force. As per the assessee, it is running a hospital providing medical facilities at subsidised rates. The assessee enjoyed the benefit under section 10(22A) of ....
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....ngly remitted the matter for fresh consideration of the application for registration filed by the assessee under section 10(23C)(via) of the Act, by observing as under:- "17 There is one more adverse finding which is recorded against the petitioner. The said adverse finding is that there is no system prevailing of reserving beds for poor or indigent patients. The issue to be addressed was whether the petitioner is providing medical treatment or facilities at nominal charge or free of any charge to a patient belonging to economically weaker section visiting the hospital. Therefore, the test applied of keeping specific number of beds reserved weaker section of the society is for economically not correct at all. Another aspect which is considered by the first respondent is that the amounts spent by patients belonging to economically weaker societies was on an average only 0.93% of the total receipts for the last 4 years. In our view, this by itself is not sufficient to hold that the character of activities carried out by the petitioner indicates that thte object was to earn profit. In fact it was necessary for the first respondent to look into the entire record for ascertaining the ....
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.... charged to them by the doctors and the amounts received by the petitioner were not Relying placed upon on record by this statement, the in paragraph 6.4, the first respondent has recorded the following finding:- "From the details filed it is found that the total number of beds available in the hospital in the general ward is 55, neo nata 4, pediatric 4 and ICU 17. However, as submitted, there is no system of reserving beds for the indigent/economically weaker patients. There are 56 beds in different rooms, wherein the higher class of patients can get admitted. Although the hospital exercises control over the fees for patients in the ward, as mentioned above, there is no control whatsoever: over patients referred by consulting doctors or patients who get admitted to rooms and the same is negotiable between the patient and the doctor. The same is the case in respect of surgeon fees also. The hospital has no control over such fees charged by the doctors. There is no cap prescribed by the hospital over the fees charged by the doctors. It is also an admitted fact that a percentage of fees is retained by the hospital from the doctors as affiliation charges. Where patients are compelle....
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....ove; (ii) It will be open for the petitioner to produce records/additional additional documents before materials/the first respondent within a period of one month from the date of judgment and order be uploaded; (iii) After considering the additional material and after giving an opportunity of 200 being heard to respondent shall the petitioner, the first pass a fresh order within a period of 4 months from the date on which this order is uploaded; (iv) All contentions of the parties on merits are kept open to the above extent; (v) Rule is made absolute on above terms. (vi) All concerned to act authenticated copy of the judgment." 6. Thus, from the above, it is evident that the Hon'ble High Court directed the Revenue to consider, inter-alia, the following aspects:- (a) Whether the assessee is providing medical treatment or facilities at a nominal charge or free of any charge to a patient belonging to an economically weaker section visiting the hospital. Thus, the adverse inference drawn by the Revenue on the basis that there is no system prevailing of reserving beds for poor or indigent persons was held to be not correct at all. (b) It is necessary for the Revenue to loo....
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....id down by the Charity Commissioner. The learned CIT(E), vide impugned order, held that till the order dated 30/03/2011, which was set aside by the Hon'ble High Court, the no. of indigent patients admitted by the assessee was nil, while the average percentage of poor patients admitted is also only around 2.2%. The learned CIT(E) further held that no indigent patient fund was created prior to the order dated 30/03/2011 rejecting the application of the assessee under section 10(23C)(via) of the Act and subsequently also more than 50% of the said fund remained unutilised. The learned CIT(E) further held that the percentage of total no. of patients admitted in the negotiable category varies from 27% to 32% which cannot be said to be a small number. Accordingly, the learned CIT(E), again rejecting the application filed by the assessee under section 10(23C)(via) of the Act, held that the assessee is not existing solely for philanthropic purposes and even if only the profit of the assessee is not taken as the sole criteria for deciding the applicability of the provisions of section 10(23C)(via) of the Act, it is not a fit case for granting registration under section 10(23C)(via) of the Ac....