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2006 (10) TMI 182

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..... record perused. 3. The brief facts of the case are that the assessee is a charitable trust and carrying on charitable activities in the shape of meditation, running a free homeopathy and allopathic dispensary, organizing eye camps besides providing the use of Celebration Hall to the general public for marriages and other social functions for which the trust accepts the donations and those donations are utilized for the various charity activities being organized by the trust. The learned Asstt. CIT has disallowed the exemptions as provided in ss. 11 and 12 of the IT Act, 1961. In this case, the return in the status of trust was filed on 28th Oct., 1992 claiming exemption under s. 11 of the Act. Survey under s. 133A was carried out on 22nd Dec., 2002 and it was found that the trust was running a wedding point at 111-Rajpur Road, Dehradun and receipts from the wedding point were shown by the assessee as donation. According to AO, no record was also kept to show that medicines have actually been dispensed to the persons. The AO, therefore, came to the conclusion that trust was carrying on business and declaring receipts in the form of donation. He, therefore, disallowed exemption un .....

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..... ivities has been declared separately by these people by filing their IT returns for the last many years. Photocopies of the returns filed by Mr. Satish Sondhi, proprietor Osho Resorts, Mrs. Sulekha Sondhi, proprietor Osho Resorts Meditation Centre and Mrs. Ninu Sethi have been placed on record. A chart showing the income in the last two years is reproduced as under: ------------------------------------------------------------- Name of Name of the Nature of Date of Asst. yr. Income person business business filing concern the return ------------------------------------------------------------- Satish Osha Running a 6.9.2001 2001-02 2,62,630 Sandhi Resorts hotel ------------------------------ 24.3.2003 2002-03 5,36,454 ------------------------------------------------------------- Sulekha Osha Sale of 6.11.2001 2001-02 56,160 Sandhi Resorts Osha Meditation books Centre cassettes ------------------------------ 24.3.200 .....

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..... of a businessman." I have gone through the statements recorded by the AO in the case of Shri P.K. Sharma and Shri M.S. Bist. As per answer to question No. 5, Mr. Sharma has clearly stated that he did not pay any amount for booking of hall and he has only confirmed the fact that the trust was receiving the money for the facilities extended in the form of donation. So long as a donation received is utilized for the aims and objects of the trust and not for the private benefit of any trustee, in my opinion, there is nothing wrong in charging the amount from the person using the assets of the trust. Similarly, Mr. M.S. Bist in response to question No. 4 has also confirmed the fact that trust asked for only donation for the use of the Celebration Hall. In fact, he further confirmed that other wedding halls were charging very high rate while in the case of the Celebration Hall, he had a choice to pay whatever he could afford. The second objection of the AO that amount received by the assessee was in lieu of certain services and therefore, cannot be termed as donation, also does not go against the appellant trust because there is no bar for charging an amount in view of any service pro .....

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..... pellant is also not true. Smt. Sulekha Sondhi is selling video/audio cassettes and literature of Osho. She wanted to keep enough stock of the material during the days biannual meditation Shivirs are held and therefore, she wanted the trust to inform her about the dates of meditation camp. She herself is not conducting any meditation camps. Regarding Patanjali Yoga Kendra, one Dr. Giri Raj is using part of the Buddha Hall for giving instructions on Yoga from time to time and for this he has paid donations to the trust which are duly reflected in the receipts of the trust. Thus, no adverse view can be taken on account of use of the hall by Patanjali Yoga Kendra. Regarding honorarium paid to the visiting doctor, learned Authorised Representative has clarified that appellant trust has made arrangement for attending to the patients and for this purpose one doctor namely Mr. S.K. Jain has been paid honorarium @ Rs. 18,000 per annum. The other allopathic doctor, R.K. Negi is providing his services free of cost. For this purpose, total medicines worth Rs. 98,139 have been purchased. The learned Authorised Representative has submitted copy of the ledger account on account of medical expense .....

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