TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (8) TMI 1347
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....essment year 2017-18. Though various grounds have been raised in the memorandum of appeal, the only issue which survives for our adjudication is the denial of exemption in respect of corpus contribution of Rs.26,50,000, which has been sustained by the learned CIT(A). 2. The material facts giving rise to the present appeal are that the assessee, Mewar University, Chittorgarh, is an educational institution constituted under the Mewar University Act, 2009, enacted by the Rajasthan State Legislature. The assessee was registered under section 12AA and was also having approval under section 10(23C)(vi) of the Act. For the year under consideration, the assessee had filed its return of income on 31.10.2017 declaring nil income. The assessment wa....
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....nt proceedings that its claim of exemption was under section 10(23C)(vi) and not under section 11. According to the learned CIT(A), voluntary contributions received with a specific direction towards corpus were specifically exempt under the provisions of sections 11 and 12, whereas no corresponding provision existed under section 10(23C)(vi) for the year under consideration. He, therefore, held that the assessee ought to have applied the amount of Rs.26,50,000 towards its objects and, having not done so, the corpus contribution could not be excluded while computing its income under section 10(23C)(vi). On this reasoning, the addition was confirmed. 5. At the time of hearing before us, none appeared on behalf of the assessee. However, det....
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.... namely, whether corpus contributions aggregating to Rs.26,50,000, received with a specific direction that they shall form part of the corpus of the assessee institution, can be treated as ordinary income merely because the assessee had claimed exemption under section 10(23C)(vi) instead of section 11. Significantly, neither the Assessing Officer nor the learned CIT(A) has disputed the identity of the donors, the receipt of the amounts through banking channels or the specific character of the donations as corpus contributions. There is also no finding that these amounts represented fees, consideration for any services rendered by the University, or any other revenue receipt merely given the nomenclature of corpus donation. Thus, the charact....
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....n 10(23C) clarifying the treatment of voluntary contributions received with a specific direction that they shall form part of the corpus of the fund, trust, institution, university or other educational institution. The statutory formulation was introduced in the nature of a clarification "for the removal of doubts". Thus, the legislative scheme itself recognises the distinctive character of a contribution specifically directed towards corpus, as distinguished from ordinary income or voluntary contributions available for application towards the objects of the institution. 9. In the present case, the entire addition has been sustained not because the genuineness of the corpus donations was doubted or because the specific directions of the ....