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Judgment
PER SUDHIR KUMAR, JUDICIAL MEMBER:
This appeal by the assessee is directed against the orders of the National Faceless Appeal Centre Commissioner, Delhi [hereinafter referred to as “Ld. NFAC”] vide order dated 29-04-2024 arising out of the order of the AO vide dated 10-12-2028 for the Assessment Year 2016-17 .
The assessee has raised the following grounds in appeal as under:
1.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has passed impugned order only to the extent that main purpose of the society is for particular community and the appellant distributed gifts to staff teachers and students in the school belongs to different cast, creed religious etc. for the same.
2.That it is wrongly assessed by the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority that funds transferred by M/s Compassion International having office at Colorado-USA. Compassion International is a Christian organization that exists as an advocate for children to release from their spiritual economic social and physical poverty and enable to become responsible and fulfil children adult. It is further stated that the governing body of the compassion International is named as Ministry and has brought out a blue print for the child across the globe. The Ld. Assessing Officer and Appellate Officer had given the salient feature relating to key to its alliance members as mentioned in the judgement.
3.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority wrongly stated that the society was involved in religious activities to promote a specific religion and not benefit for the public at large without caste and creed. It is further stated that as such the activities of the Assess Society are not in accordance with aims and objects during the year under consideration.
4 That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority was involved in religious activities which are violated under the provisions of Section 13(1) (b) of the Income Tax Act.
5.That under circumstances, Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority denied the benefit of exemption under section 11&12 of Income Tax Act.
6.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has also wrongly passed an order for charging interest u/s 334B of Income Tax Act.
7.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has suo-moto presumed that the Appellant is running an organization which is for particular community.
8.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has passed the order on the basis of surmises and conjectures and had not applied judicial mind at all.
9.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has not considered the list submitted by the Appellant to the extent that the students as well as staff in the society are of all communities.
10.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has also not taken into consideration that one unit of the Appellate Society is situated in Rishikesh where society is running Hindu Monastery and in Delhi the same society is running a Christian Monastery.
11.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has not taken into consideration that there is not even a single conversion from any community to Christian Community to any other community.
12.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has not taken into consideration that the appellant are working very fairly and are helping the poor and needy persons.
13.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has also not taken into consideration that there are about 90% Hindus are workers and students and remaining are the Christians and others communities.
14.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has only come to the conclusion that since the donation was from compassion, therefore the Ld. Assessing Officer/ Appellate Authority presumed wrongly that the society of Appellant is working only for a particular community.
15.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has not taken into consideration that the gifts were given on Diwali clearly show that the Appellate Society has been celebrating all festivals of all communities.
16.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has not taken into consideration the working capacity and documents submitted by the Appellant and passed an order mechanically without taking into consideration the true facts and grounds submitted by the Appellant.
17.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has failed to appreciate that the Appellant has strong case and has come to a conclusion that the Appellant has been working only for a particular community.
18.That therefore, it is essential that the orders have been passed on the basis of assumption and presumptions and therefore liable to be set-aside.
19.That the Ld. Assessing Officer / Appellate Authority has not given any evidence to the effect that there is any conversion in the society and on presumption and assumption arbitrarily passed the order.
The brief facts of the case are that the assessee filed return of income declaring total income at Nil. The case of the assessee who running a society was selected under scrutiny under CASS. Notice under section 143(2) of the Act was issued to the assessee. Again Notice 142(1) of the Act along with questionnaire was issued and the Assessing Officer completed the assessment after considering the submission submitted by assessee and assessed the total income at Rs. 31,51,819/-.
Aggrieved the order of the Assessing Officer the assessee filed the appeal before the Ld. NFAC who dismissed the appeal by order dated 29-04-2024 by observing as under:
2.3Considering the fact of the case available on record I have no ground to disagree with the AO’s view since the appellant has not provided any cogent reasons to deviate from the AO”s order. Therefore, these grounds of appeal are dismissed.
Being aggrieved the order of the Ld. NFAC the assessee is in appeal before the Tribunal.
The Ld. AR of the assessee submitted that the appeal was rejected without assessing any reasons on the presumption basis. He further submitted that the grounds raised by the assessee were not decided by the speaking order. He further submitted that the assessee society was not involved in religious activities. The Ld. NFAC without considering the evidence dismissed the appeal of the assessee. The Ld. DR relied upon the orders of the lower authorities.
We have heard the parties and perused the material available on record. The Ld. NFAC has decided the appeal by cryptic order and only based the order of the ld. Assessing Officer. The Ld. NFAC was supposed to decide the appeal as per the provisions of Section 250(6) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short “the Act”) which reads as under;
“The order of the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or as case may be the Commissioner (Appeals) disposing of the appeal shall be in writing and shall state the points for determination the decision thereon and the reason for the decision.”
Since, the Ld. NFAC dismissed the appeal by the cryptic order therefore, the totality of the facts and circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice, we deem fit it proper to restore the issue to the files of the Ld. NFAC with a direction to decide the appeal on merit to grant one final opportunity to the assessee to substantiate its claim and decide the issue as per fact and law and pass a speaking order on merit. The assessee is also directed to appear before the NFAC and substantiate its case without seeking any adjournment. The grounds raised by the assessee are accordingly allowed for statistical purposes.
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purpose.