LAW FOR ALL

violation of provisions of section 13(2) (d) (h) and as such exemption u/s 11 and 12 cannot be allowed to the assessee and the assessment will be made in the status of AOP. =The respondent-assessee is a trust, who was treated as an AOP by the Assessing Officer for the assessment year 2002-2003 by an order dated 24th May, 2005 and exemption under Sections 11 & 12 of the Income Tax Act [hereinafter referred to as “the Act”] had not been continued. =many of the trustees of the assessee trust were related to the directors of M/s Apollo Tyres Ltd. and so as to give undue advantage under the provisions of Section 80G of the Act, the cheque had been accepted before 31st March, 2002 although the cheque was dated 22nd April, 2002. Thus, by accepting a post dated cheque and by giving receipt in the earlier accounting year, the assessee trust had done undue favour and, therefore, the Assessing Officer observed as under in para 8 of the Assessment Order : “…This has been primarily done with the sole objective of giving advantage to the donor company M/s Apollo Tyre Ltd. in which the main trustees and their relatives were substantially interested as per provisions of section 13 (3) of the I.T. Act, 1961. This is clearly in violation of provisions of section 13(2) (d) (h) and as such exemption u/s 11 and 12 cannot be allowed to the assessee and the assessment will be made in the status of AOP. With these remarks the income is computed as under…”= none of the cheques has been dishonoured on presentation and payment cannot, therefore, be said to have been defeated by the happening of the condition subsequent, namely dishonour by non-payment and that being so there can be no question, therefore, that the assessee did not receive payment by the receipt of the cheques. The position, therefore, is that in one view of the matter there was, in the circumstances of this case, an implied agreement under which the cheques were accepted unconditionally as payment and on another view, even if the cheques were taken conditionally, the cheques not having been dishonoured but having been cashed, the payment related back to the dates of the receipt of the cheques and in law the dates of payments were the dates of the delivery of the cheques.” 15) Looking into the aforestated undisputed facts, and the view expressed by this court in the case of M/s Ogale Glass Works Ltd. (supra), we are of the view that no irregularity had been committed by the assessee trust and there was no violation of the provisions of Sections 13(2)(b) or 13(2)(h) of the Act. The fact that most of the trustees of the assessee trust and the directors of M/s Apollo Tyres Ltd. are related is absolutely irrelevant. 16) Upon careful perusal of the order passed by the Tribunal, we do not find any error therein. We are, therefore, in agreement with the view expressed by the Tribunal as well as the High Court and, therefore, the appeal is dismissed with no order as to costs.