TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (10) TMI 861
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....ing of Form No. 9A/10/10B/10BB shall be entertained beyond the period of three years from the end of the Assessment Year for which such application is made. The Circular also makes it clear that this time limit would apply for any applications that are filed on or after the date of the Circular, namely, 18th November 2024. Respondent No. 2 dismissed the application filed by the Petitioner under Section 119(2)(b) relying upon this Circular because admittedly, the application seeking condonation of delay was filed after 18th November 2024 and was beyond the period of three years from the end of the Assessment Year in question. 3. The Petitioner is a charitable trust established in the year 1984 and registered under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950. The Petitioner-Trust provides medical services to the general public at a very nominal rate in the Kandivali West of Mumbai, Maharashtra. 4. For A.Y. 2020-21, the due dates to file the return of income and audit report were extended from time to time, due to difficulties arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns imposed. The extended limit to file the return of income for the A.Y. 2020-21 was 15th February 2021. S....
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....ring which the administrative staff of the Petitioner-Trust was not coming regularly. For these reasons, the intimation and rectification order were not brought to the notice of the Chartered Accountant. 10. It is further stated that the said two trustees retired and two new trustees assumed charge in 2025. Post their appointment, the new trustees undertook a review of the records of the Petitioner-Trust, including the records available on the income tax portal. During the said review, the intimation dated 30.11.2021 and the rectification order dated 29.07.2022 came to their notice, and thus, it was only in the month of March 2025 that the Petitioner-Trust became aware that the exemption under Section 11 of the Act had been denied due to a delay of 70 days in filing the audit report. 11. Consequently, the trustees approached the auditor of the Petitioner-Trust and sought his advice on the intimation received under section 143(1) of the Act and the delay in filing the audit report in Form 10B. Based on the advice of the auditor, on 20th March 2025, the Petitioner-Trust filed an application before Respondent No. 2 to condone the delay of 70 days in filing the audit report in Fo....
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....from A.Y. 2020-21, the due date to file the audit report in Form 10B was preponed by one month. In other words, the audit report was required to be filed one month before the due date to file the return of income. The same was inadvertently not noticed by the Petitioner or the Chartered Accountant. There is no reason to disbelieve the explanation given for delay in filing the audit report in Form No. 10B as admittedly it was filed along with the return of income. This is coupled with the fact that during the relevant time, the Petitioner-trust was effectively operating in the absence of key trustees as well as permanent accounting staff and it was only pursuant to a review of records carried out by the newly appointed trustees in the month of March 2025, that the Petitioner became aware of the denial of exemption under Section 11 of the Act owing to the delay in filing the audit report. 17. Moreover, not condoning such delay would cause genuine hardship to the Petitioner inasmuch as the Petitioner has been denied exemption under Section 11 of the Act and a demand of Rs. 8,87,450/- has been raised for belated filing of the audit report in Form No. 10B. One of the relevant conside....
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....od of three years from the end of the Assessment Year in question (A.Y. 2020-21). 20. In somewhat similar circumstances, this Court had condoned the delay in filing of Form No.10B in the case of Mirae Asset Foundation vs. Principal Commissioner of Income-tax-6, Mumbai [Writ Petition No. 713 of 2025 decided on 7th July 2025]. Paragraph 5 of the said order is reproduced hereunder: 5. As far as the condonation of delay is concerned, we find that admittedly there was only 24 days delay in filing Form 10B. It is true that the application seeking condonation of delay was filed after about 9 months. However, we find that this delay is not such that should deny the Petitioner from filing Form 10B with a delay of 24 days. We find that if this delay is not condoned, there will be genuine hardship to the Petitioner, inasmuch as, the Petitioner would be denied the exemption otherwise claimed under the provisions of Section 11 of the IT Act and which is a substantial amount. In the view that we take, we are supported by a decision of the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in the case of Sarvodaya Charitable Trust v. ITO (exemption) [2021] 125 taxmann.com 75/278 Taxman 148 (Gujarat). A D....