I. T. A. No. 609 of 2007 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. Case No. : I. T. A. No. 609 of 2007 Date of Decision : December 15, 2008. The Commissioner of Income-tax, Panchkula .... Appellant Vs. M/s Haryana C. M. Relief Fund, Chandigarh .... Respondent CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ADARSH KUMAR GOEL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE L. N. MITTAL * * * Present : Mr. Yogesh Putney, Senior Standing Counsel for the Revenue. Mr. Akshay Bhan, Advocate and Mr. Sandeep Goyal, Advocate for the assessee. * * * ADARSH KUMAR GOEL, J. (Oral) : 1. Revenue has preferred this appeal under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, “the Act”) against the order dated 25.4.2007 of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Chandigarh Bench`B', Chandigarh passed in ITA No. 601/CHANDI/2006 for the Assessment Year 2004-05, proposing to raise following substantial questions of law :- “a) Whether in the facts and I. T. A. No. 609 of 2007 2 circumstances of the case, the Hon'ble ITAT was right in holding that the interest income derived by the assessee on bank deposits earned by the assessee are exempt u/s 11(1)(a) whereas there is no material evidence on record that there was a `legal obligation' within the meaning of explanation (1) to section 13 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. b) Whether in the facts and circumstances of the case, the Hon'ble ITAT was right in holding that the interest on bank deposits is exempt u/s 12(1) even though these are not voluntary contributions, as required u/s 12(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.” 2. The assessee is a registered society and is also registered under Section 12-A of the Act. The Assessing Officer sought to tax interest income received by the assessee from the deposit in the bank. On appeal, the plea of the assessee that the income was exempt under Section 11 of the Act was upheld. The said view has been further affirmed by the Tribunal. 3. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. 4. It is not disputed that the interest has been earned on a deposit which is property of the assessee. Section 11 of the Act clearly exempts income derived from property of assessee wholly for charitable or religious purposes to the extent to which such income is applied for such purposes. 5. Learned counsel for the Revenue submits that the assessee is not a Trust. We cannot accept the submission in view of explanation to Section 13(1) of the Act, which defines the term `Trust', inter-alia for purposes of Section 11, to include any other legal obligation. 6. It was also submitted that income was not from voluntary I. T. A. No. 609 of 2007 3 contributions under Section 12(1) of the Act. This question does not arise as the assessee does not seek to be exempted on account of contributions but on account of the interest income from property under Section 11(1)(a) of the Act. Accordingly, we are unable to find any substantial question of law. 7. The appeal is dismissed. (ADARSH KUMAR GOEL) JUDGE December 15, 2008 ( L. N. MITTAL ) monika JUDGE