TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (2) TMI 394
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.... right in law and on facts of the case in directing to treat the assessee-society as registered under section 12A(2) of 1961 Act, with effect from April 1, 1973 ? 4. The facts in brief necessary for understanding the dispute and answer the aforesaid questions are as under. 5. The Allahabad High School Society (hereinafter referred to as "AHS Society") claims to have been founded in the year 1861 and set up two schools, namely, "Girls High School and College" and "Boys High School and College". It was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as "Act, 1860") in February' 1988. 6. Section 12A was inserted in the 1961 Act, vide section 6 of the Finance Act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as "1972 Act") and came into force with effect from April 1, 1973. Initial section 12A as inserted with effect from April 1, 1973 read as under : "12A. Conditions as to registration of trusts, etc.-The provisions of section 11 and section 12 shall not apply in relation to the income of any trust or institution unless the following conditions are fulfilled, namely : (a) the person in receipt of the income has made an application for reg....
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....ng, satisfied that the person in receipt of the income was prevented from making the application before the expiry of the period aforesaid for sufficient reasons ; (ii) from the first day of the financial year in which the application is made, if the Chief Commissioner or Commissioner is not so satisfied ; (emphasis added) 10. Further, the words "twenty-five thousand" occurring in sub-clause (b) of section 12A was substituted as "fifty thousand" vide section 8 of the Finance Act, 1994, with effect from April 1, 1995. 11. The words "Chief Commissioner or" inserted before the word "Commissioner" occurring in section 12A(a) and proviso thereto by the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987 with effect from April 1, 1988 were omitted by the Finance Act, 1999, with effect from June 1, 1999. 12. The words "whichever is later" occurring in section 12A(a) were substituted with "whichever is later and such trust or institution is registered under section 12AA" by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1996 with effect from April 1, 1997. 13. In section 12A, clause (c) was inserted by the Finance Act, 2001 with effect from April 1, 2002, which read as under : "(c) where the tot....
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....Finance Act, 1999, with effect from June 1, 1999. 18. Further, sub-section (1A) was inserted in section 12AA by the Finance Act, 1999, with effect from June 1, 1999 and the same reads as under : "(1A) All applications, pending before the Chief Commissioner on which no order has been passed under clause (b) of sub-section (1) before the 1st day of June, 1999, shall stand transferred on that day to the Commissioner and the Commissioner may proceed with such applications under that sub-section from the stage at which they were on that day.". 19. Further, in sub-section (2) of section 12AA the words "or clause (aa) of sub-section (1)" were inserted by the Finance Act, 2007 with effect from June 1, 2007. 20. Sub-section (3) of section 12AA was inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004 with effect from October 1, 2004 and the same reads as under : "(3) Where a trust or an institution has been granted registration under clause (b) of sub-section (1) and subsequently the Commissioner is satisfied that the activities of such trust or institution are not genuine or are not being carried out in accordance with the objects of the trust or institution, as the case may....
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....ine or are not being carried out in accordance with object of trust or institution which is not the case in hand. Even with consent, it was open to the Commissioner to cancel registration of two educational institutions by order dated March 21, 2005, but there was no justification on the part of the Tribunal to refuse registration to the society with retrospective effect, i.e., from April 1, 1973. 24. We find no merit in the submission. This argument ignores and overlooked the fact that such a registration would cause overlapping of period during which two institutions were enjoying registration with effect from different periods and that will create complication in the matter. 25. It is submitted that power to condone the delay is vested in Commissioner which has to be exercised by recording reasons but the Tribunal itself has condoned delay getting itself influenced with the fact that it is a matter of educational institution. We find that for condonation of delay, purpose or objective with which trust or institution has been constituted is not relevant but for the purpose of condonation of delay one has to satisfy about genuineness of the reasons causing delay in filing ap....