2024 (4) TMI 939

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....Public Trusts Act, 1950 filed its return of income ("ROI") for Assessment Year ("AY") 2016-17 on 6th September 2016 declaring income at 'Nil" and claiming a refund of Rs. 70,710/-. Petitioner's accounts were audited and the audit report for AY 2016-17 was also filed. Along with the ROI, Petitioner had to file Form No. 10B, which Petitioner did not file. It was filed only on 15th February 2020, with a delay of about 1257 days. 3. Petitioner filed an application under Section 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ("the Act") for condoning the delay in filing the Form 10B. By an order dated 25th October 2023, the application for condonation of delay came to be rejected. It is this order, which is impugned in this Petition. 4. In the appl....

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....for AY 2015-16, for AY 2017-18 to AY 2021-22 within the due dates. On this ground alone, in our view, delay condonation application should have been allowed because the failure to file returns for AY 2016-17 could be only due to human error. Even in the impugned order, there is no allegation of mala fide. As held by the Gujarat High Court in Sarvodaya Charitable Trust v. Income Tax Officer (Exemption) [2021] 125 taxmann.com 75 (Gujarat), the approach in the cases of the present type should be equitious, balancing and judicious. Technically, strictly and liberally speaking, Respondent No. 1 might be justified in denying the exemption by rejecting such condonation application, but an assessee, a public charitable trust with almost over thirty....

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.... proof or material to establish that the auditor in fact acted without diligence. The petitioner did not urge any other grounds such as illness of someone etc., which could reasonably have been substantiated by independent material. In the circumstances of the case, the petitioner, in our opinion, was able to show bona fide reasons why the refund claim could not be made in time. 9. The statute or period of limitation prescribed in provisions of law meant to attach finality, and in that sense are statutes of repose; however, wherever the legislature intends relief against hardship in cases where such statutes lead to hardships, the concerned authorities-including Revenue Authorities have to construe them in a reasonable manner. That....

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.... avoid genuine hardship. 8. In a similar matter in Shree Jain Swetamber Murtipujak Tapagachha Sangh v. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) and Anr Writ Petition (L) No. 1321 of 2024 decided on 27.3.2024., was also a case where auditor had due to oversight not filed Form 10B. The Court held that the error on the part of auditor cannot be rejected but should be accepted as a reasonable cause shown by the trust management. In that case also, Petitioner did not suo moto realize its mistake and filed a condonation request only after Centralised Processing Centre ("CPC") sent an intimation about nonfiling of Form 10B. 9. Having considered the matter in its entirety, we are satisfied that the delay was not intentional or deliberate. Peti....