Delhi High Court stays IT department order cancelling tax exemption for NGOs Oxfam India and Care India

The Delhi High Court recently granted relief to Oxfam India and another non-profit organisation called Care India Solutions for Sustainable Development by staying an order of the Income Tax Department cancelling their tax exemption status..A Bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, however, said that both Oxfam and Care India shall only accept domestic contributions.The Bench passed the order after noting that a co-ordinate bench of the High Court had earlier granted similar relief to Centre for Policy Research (CPR). Though the Income Tax department challenged that order before the Supreme Court, there was no stay on the directions passed.“We consequently hold that the petitioners shall be entitled to interim reliefs in terms identical to those provided in paragraphs 17-19 of the aforenoted order of 25 August 2023 passed in W.P.(C) 11270/2023 [CPR case], subject to the clarification that the donations that may be accepted by the petitioners pursuant to the aforenoted interim directions shall be confined to domestic contributions only,” the Court ordered..It then listed the cases filed by Oxfam, Care India and Centre for Policy Research for further proceedings on February 27..Senior Advocate Arvind P Datar along with Advocates Sachit Jolly, Rishabh Malhotra, Disha Jham, Soumya Singh and Devansh Jain appeared for Oxfam, Care India and Centre for Policy Research.The Income Tax Department was represented through Advocates Zoheb Hossain, Vipul Agrawal and Sanjeev Menon..The Income Tax authorities have challenged the maintainability of these matters..The income tax exemptions of Oxfam, Care India and CPR were revoked by the government last year.While the detailed reason for cancelling Care India’s status is not known, a report in Newslaundry revealed that the Income Tax authorities accused Oxfam India of being “involved in the activity of submission to UN Global Impact to delist Adani Ports, which is not as per the objects of the assessee”. Another reason cited was that Oxfam was involved in “questioning the integrity of the government and discussing political issues in the meeting, which do not align with the objects of the assessee”..As reported by Bar & Bench in August last year, the High Court had stayed the Income Tax reassessment proceedings initiated against Oxfam.The reassessment proceedings against Centre for Policy Research have also been stayed by the High Court..[Read order]