Income-tax registration timing and cross-statute preconditions: section 12AA effective date follows section 12A(2), and extra registration cannot be required.

Registration under section 12AA filed after 1 June 2007 takes effect in line with section 12A(2), so the exemption provisions operate from the assessment year immediately following the financial year in which the application is made; the challenge to an earlier effective date failed. A separate registration under section 43(1) of the Andhra Pradesh Charitable & Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987 cannot be imposed as a precondition for income-tax registration because the Income-tax Act does not require it; insisting on it would amount to requiring an impossible act. The impugned condition was therefore not sustainable.

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Issues: (i) Whether registration granted under section 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 could be made effective only from assessment year 2010-11 when the application was filed on 18.12.2009; (ii) Whether registration under section 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 could be made subject to prior registration under section 43(1) of the Andhra Pradesh Charitable & Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987.

Issue (i): Whether registration granted under section 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 could be made effective only from assessment year 2010-11 when the application was filed on 18.12.2009.

Analysis: The application for registration was made after 1.6.2007, so section 12A(2) governed the effective operation of sections 11 and 12. Under that provision, where registration is applied for after the specified date, the exemption provisions apply from the assessment year immediately following the financial year in which the application is made. The claim for an earlier commencement of registration was therefore inconsistent with the statutory scheme.

Conclusion: The effective date of registration from assessment year 2010-11 was upheld and the assessee's challenge on this issue failed.

Issue (ii): Whether registration under section 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 could be made subject to prior registration under section 43(1) of the Andhra Pradesh Charitable & Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987.

Analysis: The statutory requirements for registration under the Income-tax Act do not include prior registration under the Andhra Pradesh enactment. Since the competent endowments authority was not granting such registrations, making that requirement a precondition would amount to insisting on performance of an impossible act. The condition was therefore not supported by the governing tax provisions.

Conclusion: The condition requiring registration under section 43(1) of the Andhra Pradesh Charitable & Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987 was rejected and could not be insisted upon.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded only to the extent that the impugned condition was set aside, while the effective commencement of income-tax registration from assessment year 2010-11 was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the Income-tax Act prescribes the effect of a registration application, that statutory timeline must govern, and registration under a separate enactment cannot be imposed as a precondition unless the tax statute itself so requires.

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