TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (9) TMI 345
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....ssessee is making profit out of its own Universities without recording any finding to establish that the sponsoring body and its Universities are engaging in educational activity with a dominant profit motive. 2. That the order of the AO and the CIT (A) is bad in law and facts in applying section 2(15) read with section 13(8). 3. That the order of the AO and the CIT (A) is bad in law and facts in misinterpreting the principles of Res Judicata and arbitrarily rejecting the contention and judicial precedence placed by the appellant society with regard to the fact that the AO cannot deviate from the principle followed in past assessment years without change in facts and circumstances. 4. That the order of the AO and the CIT (A) is bad in law and facts in denying the assessee the right to be assessed under section 10 which was done deliberately as the corresponding proviso to section 13(8) under section 10(23C) does not cover clause (vi) i.e. educational institution. The appellant being approved as a solely educational institution should not have been treated as a GPU category institution even if commercialization is alleged. 5. That the order of the....
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..../s. 143(2) of the Act was issued on 19/09/2017. In response to notices, counsel for the assessee has appeared from time to time and furnished the information as called for. 3.1. During the scrutiny assessment proceedings, the assessee society has furnished a note on its activities carried out during the A.Y. 2014-15. As per the note, the society has promoted a deemed University in Hyderabad. Apart from this, the society was promoting 10 State Universities which were enacted by the State Legislatures. Apart from the above activity, assessee was also doing the activity of publishing books/journals/periodicals. From the note on activities furnished by the assessee society, Assessing Officer observed that the assessee society was not engaged in any activity of imparting education and was only providing financial assistance to the Universities enacted by the State Legislatures. As noticed from the activities of the society and from the Income & Expenditure statement for the year ending 31-03-2015, Assessing Officer found that the assessee society was making profits from its publication business, and was also getting back the advances/finance made to its sister concern/ other State Un....
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....uisite permission under Section 12A and 10(23C) for various assessment years, which were duly captured and noted by the ld.CIT(A) in the following paragraphs : "9. Another submission dated 01.03.2023 was also made by the appellant. I have carefully gone through the facts of the case, Grounds of Appeal and the case laws relied upon. Let me first take up the first and the last Grounds of Appeal. The appellant has contended that during the course of the process of approval of the society u/s 10(23C)(vi) of the Act, all stated objectives were considered and the said approval continued at the time of assessment. It also argued that the registration u/s 12A of the Act was also in force at the time of assessment. Thus, the AO was not authorised to disallow exemption. While stating so, the appellant has referred to assessment orders of various years in its own case, where exemption was allowed by the respective AOs, as claimed. 6.2 Despite noticing that the assessee is having approvals for the subsequent years and is continuing to hold the approval under Section 10(23C)(vi) of the Act, the ld.CIT(A) refused to follow the principle of consistency and had wrongly rejected the ass....
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....ed the assessment vide their order u/s. 143(3) of the IT Act dated 25.02.2014 accepting the return of income. While computing the total income the assessing officer stated that after examination of the books of accounts and other details produced, the assessment is completed accepting the return of income. Copy of the order u/s. 143(3) of the IT Act dated 25.02.2014 is submitted for kind perusal. Asst. year 2012-13: For the asst. year 2012-13 the appellant society filed its return of income on 27.09.2012 declaring total income at Nil after claiming exemption u/s. 11 of the IT Act. The return was processed u/s. 143(1) of the IT Act determining tax payable at Nil. Subsequently, the case was taken up for scrutiny. The assessing officer completed the assessment vide their order u/s. 143(3) of the IT Act dated 12.03.2015 accepting the return of income. While computing the total income the assessing officer stated that after examination of the books of accounts and other details produced, the assessment is completed accepting the return of income. Copy of the order u/s. 143(3) of the IT Act dated 25.02.2014 is submitted for kind perusal. Asst, year 2013-14: ....
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....n (1992) 60 TAXMAN 248 wherein it was held as under : "We are aware of the fact that strictly speaking res-judicata does not apply to income-tax proceedings. Again, each assessment year being a unit, what is decided in one year may not apply in the following year but where a fundamental aspect permeating through the different assessment years has been found as a fact one way or the other and parties have allowed that position to be sustained by not challenging the order, it would not be at all appropriate to allow the position to be changed in a subsequent year. On these reasonings in the absence of any material change justifying the Revenue to take a different view of the matter- and if there was not change it was in support of the assessee- we do not think the question should have been reopened and contrary to what had been decided by the Commissioner of Income-Tax in the earlier proceedings, a different and contradictory stand should have been taken. We are, therefore, of the view that these appeals should be allowed and the question should be answered in the affirmative, namely, that the Tribunal was justified in holding that the income derived by the Radhasoami Satsan....
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....as those dealing with application of income or receipts of the trust. In respect of the latter, this court was of the opinion that the question of application of income or profits could arise only at the stage of assessment. The court was also of the opinion that the audited books of accounts would be of little or no relevance at the stage of registration or approval. 63. Having regard to the plain terms of the second proviso to Section 10(23C), which refers to the procedure for approval of applications including those made by trusts and institutions imparting education, one can discern no such restrictions. From the pointed reference to 'audited annual accounts' as one of the heads of information which can be legitimately called or requisitioned for consideration at the stage of approval of an application, the inference is clear: the Commissioner or the concerned authority's hands are not tied in any manner whatsoever. The observations to the contrary in American Hotel (supra) appear to have overlooked the discretion vested in the Commissioner or the relevant authority to look into past history of accounts, and to discern whether the applicant was engaged in fact, 'solely....
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.... to apply their mind and have wrongly given their findings on the basis of the judgements which were referred and distinguished by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of New Noble Educational Society, (supra). It was further pointed out by the ld.AR that the ld.CIT(A) had wrongly applied the principle laid down in the case of Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority case, despite the fact that the same was not relevant to the case of the assessee. 6.7 Lastly, it was submitted by the ld.AR that as the appeal of the assessee has been dismissed by the ld.CIT(A) and without condoning the delay, it would be appropriate that the matter may be remanded back to the file of Assessing Officer with a direction to examine the facts of the present case in the light of the decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of New Noble Educational Society, reported in [2022] 143 taxmann.com 276 (SC) (supra), more particularly, paras 62 and 63 of the said judgment. Further, it was submitted that the Assessing Officer may be directed to consider the assessment orders passed for A.Y.s 2009-10 to 2013-14 and 2016-17 keeping in view the principle of consistency as laid down in the case of Radhas....