TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (10) TMI 860
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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 uploading 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 clause 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 exceeds th....
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....ted 28th March 2017 was issued, in respect of the revised return filed on 16th September 2015 for A.Y.2015-16, denying the exemption of Rs. 1,11,16,576/- which was claimed by the Petitioner on the ground that the Petitioner had not uploaded the audit report in Form No. 10B within the prescribed time. The said intimation was uploaded on the income tax portal. However, the Chartered Accountant, who was handling the regular filing work of the Petitioner never informed the Petitioner about the said intimation and thereafter, left the organization of the Petitioner. Therefore, the said intimation was missed by the Petitioner, and no action was taken by the Petitioner till the issuance of an intimation for A.Y.2017-18 on 13th March 2019 highlight....
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....g and deciding applications for condonation of delay in filing Form 10B for Assessment Years prior to A.Y. 2018-19. 16. It is not in dispute that the delay in filing and verifying Form 10B is 1,290 days. Respondent No. 2 has rejected the application of the Petitioner on the ground that the reason of oversight cited by the Petitioner does not constitute reasonable cause warranting a condonation of delay in filing of Form 10B. 17. Admittedly, in the present case, the Petitioner obtained the audit report on 31st July 2015 and had also filed the same with the Learned Assistant Charity Commissioner, Mumbai. However, due to the miscommunication and oversight by the chartered accountant of the Petitioner, the audit report remained to be file....
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....nize genuine human problems of such nature, which may prevent a person from achieving such compliances. It is to cater to such situations the legislature has made a provision conferring a power to condone delay. These are all human issues and which may prevent the assessee who is otherwise diligent in filing returns, within the prescribed time. We may also observe that the PCIT is not consistent in the reasons when the cause which the petitioners has urged in their application for condonation of delay was common. 7. We may observe that it would have been quite different if there were reasons available on record of the PCIT that the case on delay in filing returns as urged by the petitioners was false, and/or totally unacceptable. I....
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....Courts would not discard an empathetic /humane view of the matter in condoning the delay in filing legal proceedings, when law confers powers to condone the delay in the litigant pursuing Court proceedings. This of course on testing the bonafides of such plea as may be urged. In our opinion, such principles which are quite paramount and jurisprudentially accepted are certainly applicable, when the assessee seeks condonation of delay in filing income tax returns, so as to remove the prejudice being caused to him, so as to regularise his returns. In fact, in this situation, to not permit an assessee to file his returns, is quite counter productive to the very object and purpose, the tax laws intend to achieve. In this view of the matter, we h....
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.... Commissioner of Income Tax [(2025) 482 ITR 41 (Bom.)] this Court had taken a similar view and condoned the delay in filing Form 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 the SLP preferred by the Revenue. The order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court is reported in 2025 (7) TMI 1316 - SC Order. 24. 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. 25. Apart from the above, we find that the impugned order also refers to a mismatch of figures in the income tax return and the audit report in Form 10B. It is st....