Belated filing of the audit report in Form No.10B raised the...

Belated filing of the audit report in Form No.10B raised the legal issue of condonation of delay under Section 119(2)(b); the HC applied the principle that bona fide reasons and pandemic-related regulatory extensions justify condonation and considered genuine hardship to the assessee from denial of exemption under Section 11. The court found COVID-19 disruptions and timely extensions by authorities established bona fides, held that failure to condone would cause genuine hardship, quashed the rejection of the condonation application and directed reprocessing of the return for assessment year 2020-2021.

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