Tribunal held that tax authorities in India could not go behind the tax residency certificate issued by another tax jurisdiction. The Central Board of Direct Taxes Circular No. 789 of April 13, 2000 (2000) 243 ITR 57 (St) clarified that tax residency certificate shall serve as sufficient evidence of the taxpayer’s residence and beneficial ownership for applying the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement. No cogent evidence had been brought on record to establish that the assessee was a shell or conduit company and not the beneficial owner under the tax treaty. The Assessing Officer had, surprisingly, not invoked Chapter X-A despite his belief that the transactions could be treated as a tax-avoidance arrangement. There was nothing on record to suggest that the Assessing Officer had invoked the General Anti-Avoidance Rules. The reasoning of the Assessing Officer was without any substance, not backed by credible evidence in concluding that the assessee was not entitled to claim benefit under article 13(3B) in view of the restrictions imposed under the limitation of benefit clause of article. The Dispute Resolution Panel had misconceived the factual position and misconstrued the provisions in the treaty. As the assessee had acquired the shares prior to April 1, 2017, neither article 13(3A) nor article 13(3B) would apply. On the contrary, the assessee would be covered under article 13(4) of the tax treaty rendering the entire capital gains exempt from taxation. As applicability of articleto the subject transaction was a misnomer, the reasoning of the Dispute Resolution Panel was unacceptable. The assessee was entitled to claim exemption under article 13(4) on the capital gains derived from sale of unlisted equity shares acquired prior to April 1, 2017. However, as the assessee submitted that in the earlier assessment year it had derived short-term capital gains on sale of equity shares and had claimed benefit under article 13(3B), the Assessing Officer was directed to factually verify this aspect and, if the shares were acquired after April 1, 2017 and sold prior to March 31, 2019, the benefit under article 13(3B) could be given to that extent.  (AY.2019-20, 2020-21)