The Delhi High Court has set aside an order issued by the Central Information Commission asking the Central Board of Direct Taxes to disclose tax exemptions availed by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust under the Right to Information Act, Bar and Bench reported.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was set up by the Union government to oversee the construction of the Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya.

In 2021, one Kailash Chandra Moondra had sought under the Right to Information Act a copy of the application filed by the trust to get exemptions and deductions under the relevant provisions of the Income Tax Act for its donations, LiveLaw reported.

Moondra had initially approached the Central Public Information Officer of the Central Board of Direct Taxes but was denied the information, according to PTI. Another appeal was filed before the Central Board of Direct Taxes’ appellate authority. But no information was given.

The applicant then approached the Central Information Commission, which passed an order on November 30, 2022, directing the Central Board of Direct Taxes to disclose the information.

On Friday, the Delhi High Court set aside the Central Information Commission’s November 2022 order and allowed a petition moved by the Central Board of Direct Taxes against it.

The counsel for the Central Board of Direct Taxes told the court that the information could not be provided under the Right to Information Act due to section 138(1)(b) of the Income Tax Act. The section deals with the disclosure of information regarding assessees.

The counsel also referred to another Delhi High Court judgment issued in January that set aside a Central Information Commission order directing the Income Tax Department to disclose the tax exemption details granted to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations, or PM CARES. The High Court is scheduled to hear the petition on July 10.

The PM CARES Fund was established in March 2020 as a “dedicated national fund” to deal with “any kind of emergency or distress situation” in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

Justice Subramonium Prasad, while setting aside the November 2022 order, said that Moondra could approach the appropriate authority under the Income Tax Act for the information.

The Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya was inaugurated on January 22 in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The temple, which is still under construction, is being built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,800 crore over 2.77 acres of land. The Bharatiya Janata Party governments at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh have also earmarked Rs 30,000 crore for a series of development projects across Ayodhya, including the widening of roads, the construction of ghats, a new drainage system and an airport.

The Ram temple is being built on the site of the Babri mosque, which was demolished by Hindutva extremists on December 6, 1992, because they believed that it stood on the spot on which the deity Ram had been born. The incident had triggered communal riots across the country.

In November 2019, the Supreme Court held that the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 was illegal but handed over the land to a trust for a Ram temple to be constructed. At the same time, it directed that a five-acre plot in Ayodhya be allotted to Muslims for a mosque to be constructed.