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2015 (7) TMI 649 - ITAT PUNEEntitlement to claim of exemption u/s.10(23C) (iiiab) - Whether the income of the assessee shall be exempt from tax u/s 10(23C)(iiiab) or under any other exemption provisions under the IT Act, when there are irrefutable evidence that the assessee collected capitation fee in the form of corpus donations, in relation to granting admission to students in its institutions, using its discretion under management quota or other-wise, in an arbitrary and commercial manner? - Held that:- As far as the objective of the appellant is concerned this is not the case of the Revenue that the assessee was not imparting education. As we know the term education means to teach subjects to students for the development of his mind and also to equip students to deal with reality. The training process is either theoretical or practical but student has to be taught the essentials of the selected subjects so as to develop his skill and knowledge for the subjects studied by him. The appellant institute, admittedly, fulfils the requirements of imparting formal education by a systematic teaching and instructions. Since the question about the imparting of education has not been doubted or challenged by the Revenue therefore. In our considered opinion the impugned order passed by the respondent is unsustainable in law. Strange enough there is nothing on record to prove sightlessly that the purpose of imparting of education was not fulfilled by this institute thus the Revenue Department has hopelessly failed to establish that there was any illegal activity or infringement of any law so that to doubt the genuineness of the activities. If it was so then it can be held that the allegations of the Revenue as discussed above, remained unsupported thus deserves our dismissal. From the submission of the assessee we find that out of more than 47000 students the assessee trust has collected donations from only 1217 students out of which only 23 persons had admitted to have given donations for admission. We find out of the above 23 persons only 6 were available for cross examination. We find the relatives or parents of the students have filled up the declaration stating that they have given voluntary donations to the institutions, even some of them claimed deduction u/s.80G also. Nothing has been brought on record that any such amount of donation has not been accounted for in the books of account or has been utilised by any of the trustees or their relatives or has not been utilised for purposes other than education. Therefore, we are of the considered opinion that the assessee trust whose main object is imparting education, cannot be denied the benefit of provisions of section 10(23C)(iiiab) and (iiiac) merely on the basis of contradictory statements of a few donors. Neither any donor nor the Assessing Officer has lodged any complain before Government authorities for violation of the Act. Assessments of the trust have been completed in the past accepting the exemption u/s.10(23C) of the Act. Therefore, we find no reason to deviate in absence of any evidence brought on record for denying the exemption claimed u/s.10(23C) for the year. So far as the decision relied on by Ld. Departmental Representative is concerned, the same in our opinion is not applicable to the facts of the present case which was in context of section 10(23C)(iiiad). In view of our reasons given above we hold that the Ld.CIT(A) is not justified in denying the exemption u/s.10(23C) (iiiab) of the I.T. Act. - Decided in favour of assessee.
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