2025 (9) TMI 1507

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.... No.2 (Commissioner of Income Tax [Exemptions], Mumbai). 3. The short point in this Writ Petition is that the Petitioner seeks a condonation of delay in e-verifying / accepting the audit report in Form No. 10B, which was rejected by Respondent No.2, inter alia, on the ground that no sufficient cause was shown for the aforesaid delay. 4. The Petitioner is a Public Charitable Trust established in the year 1995. The Petitioner received approval from Respondent No.2 under Section 12A/12AA on 9th May 1996. 5. As per Section 12A(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short "IT Act"), where the total income of the trust or institution as computed under the IT Act without giving effect to the provisions of Sections 11 and 12 of the IT Act exc....

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....The Petitioner received an intimation under Section 143(1)(a) of the IT Act dated 24th September 2018, denying the exemption of Rs. 1,11,89,380/- which was claimed by the Petitioner on the ground that the Petitioner had not e-verified the audit report in Form No. 10B within the prescribed time. 11. The Petitioner, upon becoming aware of this inadvertent error of not e-verifying the audit report, verified/accepted the audit report in Form No. 10B on 28th January 2019. Further, the Petitioner filed a revised Return of Income on 28th March 2019 claiming a deduction of Rs. 1,11,89,380/- under Section 11 of the IT Act. 12. The said revised Return was processed, and a fresh intimation dated 2nd January 2020 was issued under Section 143(1) o....

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....g the Return of Income dated 27th October 2017. It is stated in the Petition that the said non-filing was due to oversight on the part of the accountant responsible for the same. It is further stated that the said accountant left the employment of the Petitioner abruptly, due to which the non-filing did not come to the notice of the Petitioner till the issuance of the intimation dated 24th September 2018. In response to the above, on 28th January 2019, the Petitioner-Trust filed the audit report in Form No. 10B. Further, on 29th March 2019, the Petitioner filed the revised return of income, once again, claiming the deduction under Section 11 of the IT Act. 18. Admittedly, Petitioner is a charitable trust established more than 25 years ag....

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....se it is a Charitable Trust, would be denied on this technical ground. 22. In these circumstances, we are of the view that Respondent No. 2 ought to have taken a justice-oriented approach rather than a pedantic one and condoned the delay. On similar facts, in the cases of Sau Dwarkabai Tai Karwa Charitable Public Trust v. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) [(2025) 174 taxmann.com 245 (Bombay)] and Al Jamia Mohammediyah Education Society v. Commissioner Of Income Tax [(2025) 482 ITR 41 (Bom.)] this Court had taken a similar view and condoned the delay in filing Form No. 10B. Further, the judgment in the case of Al Jamia Mohammediyah Education Society (supra) was subjected to a challenge before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, who dismissed ....