TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (10) TMI 420
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....ngly, the appeal was to be filed on/before 24.11.2020 however, the same has been filed on dated 09.12.2020. Thus, delay of 15 days has occurred. 2. In this connection, it is humbly submitted that the due to wide spread of pandemic COVID-19, there was a delay in signing and submission of appeal before the Hon'ble ITAT. The trustee being old aged person restricted their movement to safeguard themselves. This has contributed minor delay of 15 days in filing of the appeal. 3. That in support of the aforesaid facts, affidavit of the of assessee is enclosed with this application and marked as "Annexure - A". 4. That the applicant is a layman not very conversant with the complex tax laws and because of the circumstances stated above, the delay so caused was beyond her control but was bonafide and unintended. The assessee was not going to gain any benefit because of the delayed finding and her conduct was not contumacious. Supporting Case Laws: 5.1 It is submitted that the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Collector, Land & Acquisition v. Mst. Katiji & Others (1987) 167 ITR 471 (SC) has advocated for a very liberal approach while cons....
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.... did not file bank statement, income and expenditure account and balance sheet for last three years, which are completed contrary to provisions of law and facts available on record. The findings so recorded by the ld. CIT(E) is highly perverse hence the impugned order deserves to be quashed. The ld. CIT(E) Jaipur may kindly be directed to grant registration as prayed for. 3. The appellant prays your honours indulgences to add, amend or later of or any of the grounds of the appeal on or before the date of hearing." 6. On perusal of the order passed by the ld. CIT(E), it is observed that the ld. CIT(E) has stated in his order that sufficient opportunities has been provided to the assessee to produce relevant information/documentation in support of its claim seeking registration U/s12AA(1)(a) of the Act. However the assessee has failed to avail of such opportunity, accordingly, the application seeking registration was rejected by ld. CIT(E). The ld. CIT(E) and the findings are reproduced as under:- "3. In the light of the above section of the Act and Rules, the Commissioner of income- tax has been empowered to call for such documents or information from the trust ....
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....bjects (PB 77-85). The fact as noted by the ld. CIT (E) are that the appellant filed an online application on 06-02-2020 in Form No. 10A for seeking registration u/s. 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The appellant-society was issued a letter/notice No. ITBA/EXM/F/41/2020-21/1027492592(1) dated 14.07.2020 requesting to submit certain documents/explanations and also to produce original RC/MOA for verification. Due to some personal reason appellant-society was unable to comply with the aforesaid requirement. Therefore, again appellant was issued a letter/notice No. ITBA/EXM/S/91/2020-21/1027752449(1) dated 15.8.2020. In compliance thereto, Shri Devang Gargeiya, AR and Smt. Manisha Bindal AR attended and furnished details on 28.08.2020. The appellant society through its A/R was requested to furnish audited Balance Sheet & I/E A/c for F.Y. 2018-19 & Financial Year 2019-20, premises temple photographs, clarification on rent receipt, Certified copies of trust deed from devstanvibhag for verification. He further observed and alleged and further observed that: As discussed above the applicant did not submit original documents regarding establishment of the trust/society a....
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....tution, said Rule, as inserted by the Income-tax (Second Amendment) Rules, 1973, w.e.f. 1-4-1973 and as amended by the Income-tax (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 1989, w.e.f 1-4-1988 and the Income-tax (Seventh Amendment) Rules, 2007, w.e.f. 1-6-2007, read as under: "17A. Application for registration of charitable or religious trusts, etc.- An application under clause (aa) of sub-section (1) of section 12A for registration of a charitable or religious trust or institution shall be made in duplicate in Form No. 10A and shall be accompanied by the following documents, namely:- where the trust is created, or the institution is established, under an (a) instrument, the instrument in original, together with one copy thereof and where the trust is created, or the institution is established, otherwise than under in instrument, the document evidencing the creation of the trust or the establishment of the institution, together with one copy thereof. Provided that if the instrument or document in original cannot conveniently be produced, it shall be open to the Commissioner to accept a certified copy in lieu of the original. (b) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx....
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....inently, the ld. CIT(E) raised voluminous queries and all of them were duly replied time to time, filing explanation and all the required details were submitted vide letter dated 28.0820 (PB 1-2), as admitted by the ld. CIT(E) himself on page 1 of the impugned order the ld. CIT has allegedly made a bald allegation that various documents were not filed however, the same is factually incorrect in as much as, the assessee, during the course of the proceedings, submitted various documents vide submissions dated 28.08.2020 (PB1-2); S. No. Particulars 1. Submission dated 28.08.2020 containing description of documents attached and required information along with Original PAN card. 2. A declaration on the letterhead of trust U/S 13(1)(C). ' 3. NOC from the owner of premises. 4. Certified Copy of annual accounts of last three years. 5. Certified Copy of Trust Deed/Memorandum of association. 6. Copy of identity card of main trustees, president, treasurer and secretary of the trust. 7. Certified copy of note on activities conducted during last years. 8. Details of Donation made for the period 0....
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....holding as under: "5. It was sought to be urged before the ITAT by the Revenue that there is a specific requirement of filing documents for creation of a Trust along with an application for grant of exemption. In the impugned order, the ITAT referred to Rule 17A (a) of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 which itself envisages the possibility of the Trust being created "otherwise than under an instrument" in which event it is sufficient if "the document evidencing the creation of the trust or the establishment of the institution, together with one copy thereof' is provided. The proviso to Rut,;. 17A(a) permits the Commissioner to accept even a certified copy in lieu of the original if the instrument or document in original cannot conveniently be produced. It was rightly pointed out by the ITAT that it is therefore not essential that there must be an instrument evidencing the creation of a Trust. 6. The fact of the matter was that the Assessee claimed that it is an institution/trust created in the year I 159AD and no formal deed of trust was executed at that time. The 17th Karmapa, who is the supreme spiritual Head of Karma Kagyu Lineage, made a declaration of Trust on ....
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....ssessee entertained the submissions of the assessee. The learned Commissioner denied registration to the assessee on the ground that as per r. 17A(a) of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 the assessee was to submit the original instrument of its establishment together with the copy thereof and since the assessee has submitted only the photo copy/certified copy of the instrument therefore the application was not complete and thus the application itself is not worth consideration for registration under s. 12AA of the Act. We find that the learned Commissioner has gone into too much technicalities more specifically when certified copy of the original instrument was duly filed by the assessee. If this was the sole criteria, then nothing prevented the learned Commissioner to direct the assessee to file the original instrument. The second ground on which the assessee was denied registration, was that the assessee is not doing charitable activity. On perusal of record and after hearing the rival submissions we are satisfied that the assessee is running a senior Secondary school, duly registered with CBSE and Board of School Education, Haryana. We have specifically perused the objects of the socie....
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.... Societies. It has been categorically recorded by the Tribunal that one of the objects of the society as mentioned in its bye-laws was to provide free medical aid by opening hospitals, diagnostic centres, maternity home and by organizing special medical camps. These activities had also been demonstrated in the previous three years by the assessee in its balance sheet income and expenditure account, receipt and payment account which were produced before the CIT. Further, the CIT had not commented adversely on the documents placed before it. With regard to the reason that the assessee had not furnished audited financial statements, it has been recorded by the Tribunal that the same were not relevant for establishing the fact whether the activities of the trust were genuine or not. Even the provisions of the Act do not require audited financial statements to be furnished while seeking registration under s. 12AA. As regards the plea that the assessee had offered no explanation about the registration of the society twice, it was recorded by the Tribunal that registration of a society was not a precondition for granting registration under s. 12AA. Thus, it was rightly concluded by the Tr....
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....ngs, the ld. CIT(E) has observed in his order that part reply submitted by the trust on 28.08.2020 and the balance documents which were to be submitted on 11.09.2020 and final opportunity was given by the ld. CIT(E) and after having been given sufficient time and opportunity and submitted that the matter should be restored back to the file of the ld. CIT(E) and the appeal of the assessee should be dismissed. 9. We have heard both the parties, perused materials available on record and gone through orders of the authorities below. The grounds No. 1 and 2 inter connected. We observed that the assessee is a charitable society, established long back and engaged in promoting nationality, education, and personality development of the students without any discrimination of caste, creed and sex. The ld. AR for the assessee submitted that the assessee has filed an online application on 06.02.2020 in Form No. 10A for seeking registration u/s. 12AA of the I.T. Act, 1961. Further, the assessee- society was issued noticed dated 14.07.2020 requesting to submit certain documents and to produce original RC/MOA for verification. The ld. CIT(E) has supposed in its order that as per Rule 17A r.w.s ....
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.... self certified copies of documents are sufficient for the claiming exemption under section 12AA of the Act. Further, we observed that the ld. CIT(E) has erroneously passed the order without considering that the assessee has submitted all the necessary documents which were raised in the form of queries. During the course of proceeding the documents which were submitted on 28.08.2020 has been annexed in paper book from page 1 and 2 which are reproduced as under:- S. No. Particulars Pg. No. 1. A reference letter containing description of documents attached and required information along with original PAN 1-5 2. A declaration on the letter head of trust U/s 13(1)(C) 6 3. NOC from the other of premises 7 4. Certified copy of Annual account of last three years. 8-24 5. Certified copy of Trust deed/memorandum of association 25-34 6. Copy of identity card of main trustees, president treasurer and secretary of the trust 35-39 7. Certified copy of note on activities conducted during last years 40 8. Details of donation made for the period 01/04/2018 to 31/03/2019 41 9. Details of donation received during ....