TMI Blog2019 (6) TMI 929X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rstood in a loose sense. One gets educated, as explained in Sole Trustee, Lok Sikshan Sansthan [ 1975 (8) TMI 1 - SUPREME COURT] even by seeing pictures, visiting galleries, museums, etc.; life itself being a great school. The same, however, it opined, cannot be regarded as education u/s. 2(15) of the Act. The competent authority has, in our clear view, rightly alluded to the said decision, stating that what stands imparted cannot be regarded as education u/s. 2(15). The assessee has not controverted the finding by the ld. CIT(E) that the Mother s Pride chain is of a playschool or that the agreement does not provide for a primary school and, besides, not furnished any evidence toward the said upgradation of the school to an elementary school, i.e., class 1 onwards (up to class 5), i.e., as claimed. The first and the principal objection of the competent authority is thus valid. Dominant object of the assessee-society is to make profit, which therefore cannot be regarded as charitable per se - As already opined that the only activity being pursued in furtherance of its objects is of a playschool, which would not qualify as education under the Act. The question ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is, entering into a franchise agreement (not on record) with M/s. Mother s Pride Education Personna Pvt. Ltd. The assessee-society applied for registration u/s. 12AA of the Act on 13.02.2017, which was denied by the competent authority, holding as under: 13. It would be pertinent to emphasize that the process of granting registration to charitable trust/ society is not an idle formality; it enables the Commissioner to come to the conclusion on the basis of documents, accounts, etc. filed for the purpose, whether the trust/society deserves registration [Anand Marg Pracharaka Sangha Vs CIT (1996) 218 ITR 254 (Cal)]. Evidently in the present case the applicant society is running a franchise purely on the basis of a well defined business model with no intent of imparting education to public at large. In the instant case, given the above, there is no way the genuineness of activities of the society can be corroborated with the stated aims and objects given that the society's activities are in the nature of business and can't be covered under the term 'charitable purpose . It is clearly the case that running a playschool doesn't satisfy the tenets laid d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as running a school from class play to class kindergarten. The said decision has been carefully perused. In the said case, the competent authority denied approval u/s. 10(23C)(vi) on the ground that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (commonly known as RTE Act) was not applicable to a school being run by the applicant-society. The said Act defined a school to mean a recognized school imparting elementary education (s. 2(n)), which is further defined there-under to mean education from first class to eighth class (s. 2(f)). The Tribunal, whose decision stands not interfered with by the Hon ble High Court, was of the opinion that in-as-much as the RTE Act did not apply to the appellant-society, reference thereto by the competent authority and denial of registration on that basis, was not valid. That is, the said Act cannot determine whether the applicant was, or was not, imparting education. The Hon ble Court, after reproducing the operative part of the tribunal s order, which reads as under: (pg. 90) A bare perusal of the provisions of section 2(n) read with section 2(f) would reveal that the schools which are cover ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... if what was imparted could be, in law, regarded as education, given the decision by the Apex Court in Sole Trustee, Lok Sikshan Sansthan (supra), was never the subject-matter of consideration by either the tribunal nor, consequently, by the Hon ble Court, for the said decision to have any bearing in the matter. It is well-settled, to quote from Goodyear India Ltd. vs. State of Haryana Anr. [1991] 188 ITR 402 (SC), that a precedent is an authority only for what it actually decides and not what may remotely or even logically follow from it The principle is well-settled, toward which reference is also drawn to the following decisions: Rajpur Ruda Meha vs. State of Gujarat [1980] 2 SCR 353; CIT v. Sun Engineering Works (P.) Ltd . [1992] 198 ITR 297 (SC); Lachman Dass Bhatia Hingwala (P.) Ltd. vs. Asstt. CIT [2011] 330 ITR 243 (Del)(FB); Blue Star Ltd. v. CIT [1996] 217 ITR 514 (Bom). No substantial question of law was found by the Hon ble Court to arise from the order by the tribunal, for it to interfere. The present case, accordingly, cannot be said to be covered by the said decision. 3.2 Next, we may consider the decision in Sole Trustee, Lok Sikshan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ] Now, a playschool cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be regarded as scholastic instruction. Education , as the word appears in s. 2(15), though not to be understood pedantically, has to have the elements of structured courses, designed to impart knowledge/training; accreditation; examination, etc., and cannot be understood in a loose sense. Now, children would get educated merely by playing with each other. The games they play at the playschool may, apart from being entertaining, sharpen their responses and even thinking. A child s thinking is aroused by everything or anything he sees around himself, including his companions, whose company itself may be instructive. Why, a child may absorb a lot of things observing his parents and elders at home, or otherwise taught by them, each paramount in his development, viz. to walk, speak mother tongue, etc., which though cannot be regarded as toward education , i.e., as understood under the Act. One gets educated, as explained in Sole Trustee, Lok Sikshan Sansthan (supra), even by seeing pictures, visiting galleries, museums, etc.; life itself being a great school. The same, however, it opined, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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