{"id":58898,"date":"2026-03-16T20:50:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/equity-intelligence-aif-trust-v-cbdt-2025-480-itr-278-306-taxman-214-delhihc\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T20:50:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:20:58","slug":"equity-intelligence-aif-trust-v-cbdt-2025-480-itr-278-306-taxman-214-delhihc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/equity-intelligence-aif-trust-v-cbdt-2025-480-itr-278-306-taxman-214-delhihc\/","title":{"rendered":"Equity Intelligence AIF Trust v. CBDT (2025) 480 ITR 278 \/ 306 Taxman 214 (Delhi)(HC)."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Assessee, a SEBI-regulated Category III AIF trust, sought advance ruling on whether section 164 applied merely because names of investors\/beneficial interests were not mentioned in the original trust deed. The BAR, relying on CBDT Circular No. 13 of 2014, held that in absence of such particulars in the original trust deed, the trust was indeterminate and liable to maximum marginal rate in the hands of trustees. Allowing the writ petition, the Delhi High Court held that under section 12 of the SEBI Act and regulations 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the SEBI (AIF) Regulations, an AIF cannot accept commitments\/investments until registration is obtained; hence, at the stage of execution\/registration of the original trust deed, it is legally impossible to name investors or specify their beneficial interests. Law does not compel performance of the impossible and the maxim <em>lex non cogit ad impossibilia<\/em> squarely applied. Once the investors and their shares became ascertainable\/determinable under contribution agreements after registration, the requirement of certainty stood satisfied and section 164(1) was not attracted. The Court also held that para 6 of CBDT Circular No. 13 of 2014, suggesting that contrary High Court decisions would operate only within that High Court\u2019s territorial jurisdiction, was contrary to settled judicial discipline, since a decision of a Constitutional Court on a pure question of law binds Revenue authorities nationwide unless overturned. Accordingly, the\u00a0 order of Board for Advance Rulings quashed and set aside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>S. 164 : Representative assessee\u2014Charge of tax\u2014Beneficiaries unknown\u2014Alternative Investment Fund (Category III)\u2014Where SEBI law prohibits an AIF from accepting investments or identifying investors before registration, non-mention of investors\/beneficial interests in original trust deed cannot attract maximum marginal rate under section 164\u2014Doctrine of impossibility (\u201clex non cogit ad impossibilia\u201d) applied\u2014Once beneficiaries and their shares become determinable under contribution agreements, requirement of law stands satisfied\u2014CBDT Circular No. 13 of 2014 could not be applied in such impossible circumstances\u2014Board for Advance Rulings order quashed. [Ss. 161, 245Q, 245R(4), SEBI Act, 1992, s. 12, SEBI (AIF) Regulations, 2012, regs. 3, 6(3), Art. 226]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-income-tax-act"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9S2Rw-fjY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58899,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58898\/revisions\/58899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}