COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX - EXEMPTION Vs. ANESTHESIA SOCIETY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal preferred under section 260A of Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short "the Act") is directed against order dated 6.3.18 of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Jodhpur Bench, Jodhpur, passed in ITA No. 455/Jodh./2017, whereby an appeal preferred by the respondent assessee against the order dated 9.10.17 passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (CIT) (Exemption), rejecting the application of the assessee under Sec. 12A of the Act, has been allowed and accordingly, CIT (Exemption) has been directed to grant registration to the assessee under Sec. 12A of the Act.

(2.) Precisely, the contention of the appellant is that the assessee society has been constituted for the benefit of only one branch of medicine i.e. Anaesthesia and not for the purpose of benefiting the entire medical fraternity and therefore, the benefit of registration under Sec. 12A was rightly denied to the assessee society by the CIT (Exemption) and thus, the ITAT has erred in law in extending benefit of registration under Sec. 12A to the assessee society.

(3.) The learned ITAT opined that the society might be catering to only one particular branch of doctors, but it is not the case of the department that the benefit will be accruing to specified individuals rather, all the doctors practising Anaesthesia within the district of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh will stand benefited by the activities of the society. Relying upon a decision of the Honourable Supreme Court in the matter of 'Ahmedabad Rana Caste Association Vs. Commissioner of Income Tax', (1971) 82 ITR 704 and a Bench decision of this court in 'Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Jodhpur Chartered Accountants Society', 258 ITR 548 (Raj.), the ITAT held that the assessee society is eligible for the benefit of registration under Sec. 12A of the Act.