TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (3) TMI 940
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....y of 're-opening of assessment 2. upholding the action of the AO of re-opening the assessment under section 147 of Act, which was merely based on information received from DIT, Investigation, without having a valid reason to believe and not recording failure on part of the Appellant, of not disclosing the facts pertaining to claim made in return of income. 3. re-opening the assessment proceedings for the captioned assessment year under section 147 of the Act as against section 153C of the Act, being mandatory for a case where incriminating material is found in search of third party and thereby the re-opening proceeding is bad in law. 4. upholding the action of AO of reopening the assessment under section 147 of the Act, which was undertaken merely on the basis of statement recorded during the search/ survey proceedings of a third party, and no other corroborative evidence/material has been brought on record against the Appellant for the purpose of making the reassessment. Grounds against disallowance of deduction claimed under section 80GGA of the Act 5. confirming the action of the Ld. AO of disallowing the deduction claimed under s....
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....the assessee submitted all his bank records, other donation documents and Income Tax papers to prove that he has indeed given a donation to the said Trust. Accordingly, the assessee submitted that the donation given to the Navjeevan Charitable Trust is genuine. 7. The Assessing Officer ("AO"), vide order dated 08/12/2016 passed under section 143(3) read with section 147 of the Act, disagreed with the submissions of the assessee and held that the genuineness of the donation given to the Navjeevan Charitable Trust could not be established. It was further held that the said Trust indulged in availing bogus donations in cheque and returning the same in cash after deducting certain commissions, which is proved by the statement of one of the Trustees of the Trust recorded during the search proceedings. The AO further held that, as per the statement, the expenses incurred by the Trust were bogus. Since the assessee is also one of the donors of the said Trust, the AO treated the entire donation as bogus and disallowed the same. 8. The learned CIT(A), vide impugned order, dismissed the appeal filed by the assessee on this issue and held that the Investigation Wing's findings demonstra....
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....ferent evidentiary matrix, whereas here the Department has produced post-donation material of large scale (running into crores) showing an organised accommodation-entry racket a pattern which the Hon'ble involving brokers and numerous beneficiaries Supreme Court has recognised and which has justified cancellation of donee registrations in cases such as Batanagar Education & Research Trust. In these circumstances once the Department confronted the appellant with the survey material and trustee/broker statements, the appellant was required to meet that material with cogent and specific evidence demonstrating application of the donated funds to genuine charitable activity; the appellant has not done so. Further, the questions posed by appellate tribunals in similar contexts why the donation was made to a particular out-station institute, what was the donor's antecedent interest in the institute's objects, whether similar donations were made in past or future years remain unanswered in the appellant's case and these unanswered factual circumstances materially undermine any contention of bona fides. For all these reasons the AO's conclusion that the donation was not ....
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....ehemently relying upon the order passed by the lower authorities, submitted that none of the documents relied upon on behalf of the assessee proves that the transaction of payment of donation to the Navjeevan Charitable Trust was genuine in light of the findings of the Investigation Wing and the statement recorded during the search. 12. Having considered the submissions of both sides and perused the material available on record, at the outset, it is evident that in the decisions of the Coordinate Bench of the Tribunal relied upon by the learned AR, the deduction under section 80-GGA of the Act was denied based on the subsequent withdrawal of the approval granted to the Navjeevan Charitable Trust under section 35-AC of the Act. However, in the present case, as evident from the record, the findings of the lower authorities are based on the facts which emerged during the search on the Navjeevan Charitable Trust, wherein it was found that the Trust was merely a bogus entity, which had not incurred any genuine expenses for the purpose of section 35-AC of the Act. In this regard, the lower authorities have placed reliance upon the statement of the Trustee recorded during the course of....