ITAT upholds withdrawal of charitable status of Young Indian

In what could be termed as a major setback for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on Friday upheld the Income Tax department's withdrawal of the charitable' status of "Young Indian" from the assessment year 2011-12.

"Here, in this case, as we have gathered from the material facts on record and discussed in detail, the assessee at the time of seeking registration itself has concealed the material facts and not disclosed the entire events of transactions which had undergone from the date of inception of assessee company till the grant of registration and one of the conditions on which the registration has been granted stood violated from the day one and therefore, under these circumstances, the ld. CIT(E) was fully justified in law and on facts in cancelling the registration from the date of granting of registration itself, i.e., from the assessment year 2011-12," observed the tribunal.

"Accordingly, in view of our findings given above, we hold that the ld. CIT (E) was justified in cancelling the registration from the assessment year 2011-12 because none of the activities of the assessee was carried out in accordance with its objects nor its activities can be held to be genuine. Consequently, the appeal of the assessee is dismissed," read the ITAT order.

Rahul Gandhi had appealed against the I-T department's decision in July to scrap the 'charitable' tag, saying that the tax exemption they enjoyed could not be reversed retrospectively.