TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (9) TMI 1029
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....me Tax Act, 1961 ("the Act" for short)pertaining to Asst. Year 2018-19. 2. The grounds raised by the Revenue read as under: "1. Whether the Ld. CIT(A) was justified in allowing the claim of deduction u/s 11 of the Act despite the fact that the audit report in Form 10B is not filed alongwith the return of income as laid down in section 12A(1)(b) of the Income Tax Act. 2. Whether the Ld. CIT(A) has erred in upholding the view that the provisions regarding furnishing of audit report alongwith the return is a procedural proviso, whereas nowhere in the Act it is mentioned that provisions of section 12A(1) are. directory in nature." 3. Solitary issue raised in the appeal of the Revenue is that the AO has disallowed the cla....
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....e assessee by observing that the impugned audit report was e-filed to AO in regular assessment proceedings, on 6.10.2018 and was available before the AO when he passed the assessment order under section 143(3) on 6.4.2021. Taking note of judicial precedents to the effect that filing of form alongwith return being a procedural requirement, and if the same was available during assessment or in appellate proceedings the assessee should not be denied of the benefit of deduction, he allowed assessee's claim of deduction u/s 11 of the Act and deleted the addition made to the income of the assessee of Rs. 1,52,03,71,381/- 4. Dissatisfied with order of the ld. CIT(A), the Revenue is now before the Tribunal. 5. Before us, the ld.DR while stron....
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....tion under section 11 and 12 of the Act on the ground that the assessee had failed to furnish audit report in form No. 10B along with return of income filed. We find, this issue has been discussed and appreciated by the ld. CIT(A) in impugned order in the light of various judicial decisions, and allowed the claim of the assessee, by observing that the assessee did file the audit report and the same was available both during assessment and appellate proceedings, and thereby the assessee has substantially complied with relevant provisions of the Act. The relevant findings of the ld. CIT(A) are as under: "(g) In the instant case the appellant/assessee is a charitable trust registered u/s 12A on 29.01.1980. Thus it is engaged in charit....
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....me. The appellant/assessee uploaded the audit report within a week of filing return of income. It cannot be denied the benefit of exemption under section 11 merely on account of delay in furnishing audit report. Thus the addition made by CPC Bangalore in its order under section 143(1) of the IT Act 1961 dated 17.03.2020 in respect of voluntary contribution other than the corpus received by the appellant trust amounting to Rs. 1,52,03,71,381/- is ordered to be deleted." 8. The appellate proceedings being the continuation of assessment proceedings merely because the assessee has not furnished at the threshold i.e. furnishing the audit report along with return of income, but filed during the assessment proceedings, and available even during....
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....ases should be equitable, balancing and judicious. Technically speaking, respondent No. 2 might be justified in denying the exemption under section 11 of the Act by rejecting such condonation application, but an assessee, which is a public charitable trust for past 30 years which substantially satisfies the conditions for availing such exemption, should not be denied the same merely on the bar of limitation especially when the legislature has conferred wide discretionary powers to condone such delay . Applying the said principle, the petition is allowed. The impugned order passed by respondent dated 12-3-2021 is quashed and aside. The impugned order of rectification under section 154 of the Act dated 25-1-2019 is also quashed and set aside.....