Safe Development Alms Trust Vs ACIT (Kerala High Court)
The Kerala High Court allowed the assessee trust’s appeal concerning whether the donations received by it constituted “anonymous donations.” The Assessing Officer and the statutory appellate authorities had concluded that the disputed amounts were anonymous donations, whereas the assessee contended that its returns contained the names, addresses and other necessary particulars of the contributors.
The assessee submitted that the authorities had ignored the details disclosed in the returns and had incorrectly treated the donations as anonymous. The Revenue disputed this contention, stating that the returns did not contain the names and addresses of the donors and referred to the assessment order, which recorded that the Managing Trustee had admitted that the institution was not maintaining a list of donors owing to a religious custom. The Revenue suggested that the matter be remitted to the First Appellate Authority for reconsideration of the factual dispute, and the assessee accepted this course.
The High Court observed that the dispute was purely factual, with both sides relying on the same documents while disagreeing on whether those records contained the names and addresses of the donors. The Court held that it was not appropriate to examine such factual issues at that stage and therefore found no necessity to admit the appeal or frame questions of law.
