Case Law Details
Brijbasi Education And Welfare Society Vs PCIT (Delhi High Court)
Conclusion: Addition made by AO against Educational Trust on account ofdonations were found to be bogus was justified as assessee failed to discharge the onus of proof cast upon it and no attempt was made to produce credible material to corroborate the transactions or to explain the contradictory evidence that it was confronted with.
Held: Assessee was an educational trust, duly registered under the provisions of Section 12AA and was enjoying exemption under Section 80G thereof. Assessee had failed to explain the donation of Rs. 95,00,000 in terms of Section 68. Accordingly, an addition of Rs. 60,00,000 was made on account of unexplained cash credit, thereby determining the total taxable income as Rs. 60 Lakhs. It was held that assessee’s contention that since AO had originally accepted the donations to be genuine, he was precluded from treating them to be bogus and making additions, was untenable. Tribunal had noted that though assessee had initially submitted the confirmation of donation at the time of original assessment, however during investigation by the CBI, some of the donors had confessed that they had not given any such donation. Under interrogation of the donors it was unearthed that the donation detail submitted by assessee in the original assessment proceedings was false. Thus, the genuineness of the donors could not be established. This case invited deeper scrutiny owing to the discovery of facts during CBI investigation that adversely impinged the findings determined in the earlier round of assessment. However, assessee failed to discharge the onus of proof cast upon it. No attempt was made to produce credible material to corroborate the transactions or to explain the contradictory evidence that it was confronted with. Assessee also never took any steps to examine the witnesses and as a result, on the basis of the material on record, the tax authorities concluded that the genuineness, creditworthiness remained unsubstantiated. Therefore, the donations were treated as bogus, justifying the additions.
FULL TEXT OF THE HIGH COURT ORDER /JUDGEMENT
C.M. Nos. 7858/2020 & 8021/2020 (Exemptions)
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