2025 (4) TMI 1715

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....for the Petitioner and learned Senior Standing Counsel Ms. Maithili D. Mehta for the Respondents. 2. Rule returnable forthwith. Learned Senior Standing Counsel Ms. Maithili D. Mehta waives service of notice of rule for the Respondents. With the consent of learned advocates for the respective parties, the matter is taken up for hearing, as the issue involved is very short. 3. The brief facts of the case are as follows: 3.1 The Petitioner is a public charitable trust duly constituted in the year 1996 and registered under the provisions of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950. The case of the Petitioner, in nuce, is that, the Petitioner, for the Assessment Year 2016-17, has caused its accounts to be audited and obtained the requisite au....

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....ion was taken, and on 03.07.2018, the auditor of the Trust filed Form 10B electronically in accordance with the requirements of Section 12A(1)(b) of the Act. 3.5 Thereafter, the Petitioner addressed a representation dated 23.02.2021 to the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption), seeking condonation of delay in filing the audit report. It was submitted therein that the lapse was inadvertent and occurred due to reasonable cause. The Petitioner urged that the pragmatic approach be adopted to prevent disproportionate hardship, especially considering the charitable nature of the Trust's activities. 3.6 The CIT (Exemption) vide order dated 31.03.2021 rejected the application/letter Condonation of Delay filed by for the Petitioner. 3.....

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....re-J; E) To pass any such other and further orders as Your Lordships may deem, just, fit in the interest of justice;" 5. Ms. Shrunjal T. Shah, learned advocate appearing for the Petitioner has submitted that the Petitioner-Trust had obtained the Audit Report in Form 10B within the due date as prescribed under the Act/Notified by the CBDT. In such circumstances, the non-filing of the same due to a bonafide error would deprive the Trust of the benefit of exemption under Sections 11 and 12 of the Act and would burden the Trust, which is admittedly functioning solely for the betterment of the lot of widowed women, by imparting various vocational training to such needy individuals. She further submitted that the very purpose of the p....

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....ot filed within time. In such circumstances, the denial on the part of the Department to condone the delay in complying with the procedural requirement on the part of the Assessee would result in denial of a substantive right of the Assessee to claim an exemption, which would in turn, result in the Assessee having to pay the demanded amount, thereby unjustly enriching the Department. In such view of the matter in our opinion, the Petitioner would have been caused undue hardship which the Department could have alleviated by allowing the Assessee's application under Section 119(2)(b) of the Act, which is rejected only on the technical grounds. 7.2 This Court in several recent decisions, namely in the case of M/s. Royal Led Equipments Pvt. ....