TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (10) TMI 589
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.... under section 12AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961. 2. Brief facts are that the assessee, St. Joseph High School, is an old public charitable educational institution which has been in existence since prior to the enactment of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950. It was subsequently registered under the said Act, now known as the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950, vide Registration No. D-169 dated 11.10.1955. The assessee has, since its inception, been engaged in imparting education and is administering an English-medium primary and secondary school under the name and style of "St. Joseph High School". The school is duly recognised by the Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, and receives grant-in-aid from the State Government. I....
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.... trust deed or Memorandum of Association and, therefore, no such instrument was available. 5. The learned CIT(E), however, held that the application submitted before the Charity Commissioner and the certificate of registration merely evidenced the registration of the public trust and did not constitute an instrument or document evidencing its creation or establishment. He further observed that the assessee had neither furnished a formal trust deed or Memorandum of Association nor any scheme for its management and administration settled by the Charity Commissioner or a competent Court. According to him, in the absence of such a constitutive instrument, it was not possible to examine the objects of the assessee, its intended beneficiaries,....
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....easoning given in the impugned order. 7. We have heard the parties and perused the material placed on record. The application for renewal has been rejected essentially for the reason that the assessee could not produce a formal instrument of trust or Memorandum of Association. It is, however, not in dispute that the assessee has been registered as a public charitable trust under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act since 11.10.1955, has enjoyed registration under section 12A since 07.08.1975 and was granted registration under the substituted regime in Form No. 10AC dated 28.05.2021. It is also an admitted fact that the assessee is administering a primary and secondary school duly recognised by the Education Department and receiving grant-in....
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....the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act cannot be regarded as documents merely evidencing the factum of registration. Registration under the said Act follows a statutory process under which the competent authority examines, inter alia, the existence and public character of the trust, its objects, trustees, mode of succession and trust property. Such statutory records, therefore, constitute substantive and relevant evidence of the creation, establishment and continued existence of an applicant for the purposes of Rule 17A(2)(b). In the present case, these statutory records stand further corroborated by the assessee's registration under section 12A since 1975, its subsequent registration under section 12AB, the recognition granted by the Education ....
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....er section 12AB where the institution was established otherwise than under an instrument and had furnished cogent statutory and documentary evidence of its creation, continued existence, objects and activities. It was further held that registration under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act and the records maintained by the Charity Commissioner constitute relevant evidentiary material for the purposes of Rule 17A(2)(b). 12. The same principle was followed in School of St. John the Evangelist v. CIT(E) (supra), involving a long-established public charitable educational institution which was likewise registered under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, had enjoyed registration under the Income-tax Act for several decades and was carrying on th....