TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2004 (6) TMI 277
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.... 2. Facts of the present case are that the appellant is a society which has sought registration under s. 12A(a) of the IT Act vide application dt. 6th Feb., 2001, which was though allowed by DIT but it was allowed w.e.f. 1st April, 2000. In its application for registration and in its application for condonation of delay dt. 6th Feb., 2001, it was admitted by the appellant-society that there was delay in filing the application on account of several reasons and therefore it was requested to DIT that the delay in filing the application for registration be condoned. DIT in his order dt. 23rd Aug., 2001 though granted the registration but granted the same w.e.f. 1st April, 2000. Delay involved, as per DIT, was 43 years 8 months and 14 days which....
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....ay, 1957 as per the certificate of registration which was appended at the back of PB 19. It was further submitted that the appellant aims at national integration and to improve the social, economical and educational status of primary teachers and the detailed submissions on its objects and nature were made in the application for condonation of delay filed at PB 44-45 and its memorandum of association (PB 4 to 7) and in the application of registration at PB 2. It was further argued by Mr. Gupta that there were sufficient reasons for making the application for registration under s. 12A in February, 2001 i.e. belatedly. The society was registered in year 1957 i.e. much before the enactment of IT Act, 1961. Therefore, the society could not make....
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.... sufficient reason. The society of the primary teachers remained under the bona fide belief that it enjoys exemption like the one enjoyed by the trade unions and their society is also like that. This belief also constituted the sufficient reason for not moving application for registration. Since there was no profit motive of the society and all the grants received were the specific grants to be used for the specific purpose, the society remained under the bona fide belief that nothing under the IT Act concerns them. When notice under s. 148 was issued, the society went into tizzy and tried to dig past records of number of years to verify in Bihar whether any such statutory formality was ever complied with. When nothing of this sort was foun....
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....onable cause for the delay in filing the application for registration. According to him, there is no special treatment to be given if the society is non-profit motive and is a non-political organization and compliance of law has to be done unscrupulously by such society. According to him, appellant-society does not have any explanation for filing the application for registration so belatedly. However, he accepted that the delay in filing the application was not 43 years 8 months and 14 days as mentioned by DIT in his order but the delay has to be computed from1st April, 1973. According to him, if the appellant did not comply with requirement of law by filing the application for registration in time, it does not have any option but not to ge....
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....ayer for upholding the order of DIT. 6. Having heard the rival submissions and having deliberated the judicial decisions cited at the bar before us, we are of the considered view that it is a case where appellant-society deserves to succeed. The appellant was registered in the year 1957 i.e. at a time when IT Act, 1961 and its ss. 11 and 12 were not there. Therefore, there is no reason to disbelieve the plausible explanation of the appellant that the office bearers of the appellant-society could not have had any reason to see the applicability of the provisions of such non-existing enactment or its sections or otherwise take into account taxability aspect of the appellant-society. Requirement of registration was however brought by Financ....
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....eved to have ignored the provision of law and entertained bona fide belief as to the compliance of all required statutory formalities by their predecessors. This situation and such explanation of the appellant is not something which is improbable. This aspect of the matter also cannot be lost sight of that there was no profit motive of the appellant-society and office bearers of the society are out of the primary teachers only with no knowledge of the nuances of IT law. Case laws cited by the learned Senior Departmental Representative have been considered by us and none of them applies to the facts of the present case. Legal propositions emanating from these decisions cannot be differed with but what is important in the present case is whet....