TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (7) TMI 743
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....t of its members, without appreciating that the term members refers to Members of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, a statutory professional body formed under the Act of Parliament. The appellant does not operate for private or mutual benefits but for skill enhancement, education, and capacity building of professionals governed under an Act of Parliament, which constitutes a charitable purpose under section 2(15). 3. That the CIT(E) ignored the fact that professional bodies engaged in imparting knowledge, training, and public governance related competencies to qualified professionals serve a wider public purpose, and such activities have consistently been held to be educational in nature which is covered u/s. 2(15) of the Act. 4. That, the CIT(E) has failed to grant proper opportunity of being heard and has wrongly rejected the application filed in Form NO. 10AB for granting registration u/s. 12A of the I.T. Act. 5. That the order passed by the CIT(E) is against the principles of natural justice. 6. The appellant craves leave to add modify or alter any of the grounds of appeal erred or advice additional evidence at the time of hearin....
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....sed and for the same reasons, the appeals filed by the ICAI are allowed on the similar facts and circumstances of the case as that of the instant case. Thus, he prayed to follow the aforesaid ratio in the present case by setting aside the orders of the CIT(E) passed u/s. 12A and u/s. 80G of the Act. 5. The Ld. DR has submitted that since the applicant has not carried out any charitable activity coupled with the fact that it works exclusively for the benefits of its members and does not impart any charitable activity in any form for general public at large, therefore, the conditions for grant of registration are not satisfied and hence the application filed in Form 10AB for grant of registration u/s. 12A(1)(ac)(iii) was rejected and provisional registration issued on 4.4.2023 was also canceled and simultaneously, the approval u/s. 80G was also cancelled. 6. We have heard both the parties and perused the material available on record. We find that Ld. CIT(E) rejected the application of the applicant for registration u/s. 12A by observing as under :- "3. Upon perusal of the Memorandum of Association of the company, it is observed that one of its main objectives is "to sa....
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....ation filed in Form 10AB for grant of approval u/s. 80G(5) was also rejected. 6.2 We note that it is undisputed fact that the applicant does not operate for private or mutual benefits but for skill enhancement, education, and capacity building of professionals governed under an Act of Parliament, which constitutes a charitable purpose under section 2(15). The applicant is a professional body engaged in imparting knowledge, training, and public governance related competencies to qualified professionals serve a wider public purpose, and such activities have consistently been held to be educational in nature. The following are the main aims of the applicant: i) To act as Self-Regulatory Organization as prescribed in Clause (f) of Regulation 292A of the SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018 and functions incidental thereto. (ii) To register social auditors on fulfilling the prescribed requirements. (iii) To lay down criteria / norms for empanelment of Social auditors, categorization of social auditors into various categories on fulfillment of required criteria/ norms including but not limited to number of qualified social au....
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....39. Apparently, the Institute conducts distance education courses and also conducts classroom instruction facilities. These are integrated with the course curriculum. Additionally, it was urged that no commercial motive was involved; coaching and revisional classes conducted are very nominally priced -ranging from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2500 for one group, and from Rs. 4000 to Rs. 6000 for both groups, depending on cities where the classes are held. 192. During the submissions on behalf of the Institute, the financials for different years were provided. It was revealed that the total outflow towards salaries for 2003-04 was Rs. 55.27 lakhs and depreciation for the same was Rs. 51.64 lakhs. The total expenditure for that year was Rs. 1.0691 lakhs. As against that, the Revenue earned from generation of fees for the corresponding year which was Rs. 1.78 crores and the corresponding expenditure was Rs. 96.93 lakhs. The corresponding figures for FY 2011-12 for salaries was Rs. 2.94 crores. The depreciation was Rs. 4.05 crores. The total expenditure thus was Rs. 6.9 crores. As against this, the amount received towards fees was Rs. 6.36 crores and expenditure incurred towards coaching, ....
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.... professional etiquette, behaviour, and discipline of its members. No other entity or body has the authority in law to perform the functions that the Institute does. Although the Act regulating Chartered Accountancy came into force prior to the Constitution of India, the subject (of regulating professions, etc.) appears to be relatable to the exercise of legislative power under Entry25 and 26 of the Concurrent List. Furthermore, they also appear to conform to Entry 65 of the Union List(which has been adverted to in Entry 25 of the Concurrent List). As things stand, the Institute is the only body which prescribes the contents of professional education and entirely regulates the profession of Chartered Accountancy. There is no other body authorised to perform any other duties which it performs. It, therefore, clearly falls in the description of a charity advancing general public utility. Having regard to the previous discussion on the nature of charities and what constitutes activities in the 'nature of trade, business or commerce', the functions of the Institute ipso facto does not fall within the description of such 'prohibited activities'. The fees charged by the I....