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2018 (2) TMI 1366 - AT - Income TaxDenying registration to the assessee trust u/s. 12AA - order passed without observing the due process of law - Held that:- As the law itself clearly provides that any order refusing registration, as the impugned order, could only follow a reasonable opportunity of hearing (to the applicant trust or institution). This hearing, firstly, is to be before the competent authority, and cannot be delegated, even as clarified by the Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court in Ameliorating India (2017 (2) TMI 1283 - PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT). This is as it is he who is to be in law satisfied, or not so, about the merits qua the grant of registration. That is, it is his personal satisfaction and judgment alone that is relevant, and it is he who is therefore to form an informed opinion after hearing the applicant. Two, the hearing has to be specifically qua the grounds with reference to which the competent authority considers the application for registration as failing or as infirm, so that the same ought to be refused/not allowed. Not so doing would render nugatory the very purpose of hearing. In the facts of the present case, the only aspect, among the several that inform the denial of registration, as a perusal of the impugned order shows, on which the assessee was show caused, is the absence of dissolution clause in the trust deed. And qua which in fact the assessee, vide para (xi) of its letter dated 20.12.2016, states to have been since added. Under the circumstances, therefore, the impugned order, passed without observing the due process of law, is procedurally deficient, constituting an irregularity.We, accordingly, setting aside the impugned order, direct the disposal of the assessee’s application by the competent authority in accordance with law - Decided in favour of assessee for statistical purposes.
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