AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (3) TMI 391
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.... 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ("I. T. Act") for A.Y.2020-2021. By the impugned order, the CIT (Exemptions), Mumbai (Respondent No. 1) rejected the Application filed by the Petitioner seeking a condonation of delay of 113 days in filing Form 10B by relying upon a Circular issued by the CBDT, being Circular No. 16/2024 dated 18th November 2024. This Circular stipulates that no Application for delay in filing 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....
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....Petitioner was required to conduct an audit of its books of account and submit a statutory audit report under Section 12A(1)(b) of the I. T. Act in Form No. 10B. The Petitioner had filed its audit report along with the return of income on 31st October 2020. 6. The problem has arisen because apart from uploading of the audit report, the Assessee is also required to e-verify/ accept the said audit report. Since all this was done during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Managing trustee [who was more than 80 years] of the Petitioner-Trust was working from home, due to inadvertence, the e-verification/ acceptance of the audit report in Form 10B, and which was already filed by the auditor in time, was not done by the Petitioner-Trust within the s....
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....llenge to paragraph 3 of the Circular No. 16/2024 dated 18th November 2024. 11. Having said that, in the facts of the present case, we do not deem it appropriate to send the Petitioner to the CBDT. This is because we are satisfied that there is a reasonable cause for the delay of 113 days in filing of Form No. 10B by the Petitioner. Firstly, the delay is merely of 113 days. Further, we note that A.Y. 2020-21 was the first year when the due date to file audit report was preponed by one month. Earlier, the time limits to upload the audit report in Form 10B coincided with the due date to file the return of income. However, with effect from A.Y. 2020-21, the due date to file the audit report in Form 10B was preponed by one month. In other wo....
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.... "15. The phrase "genuine hardship" used in Section 119(2)(b) should have been construed liberally even when the petitioner has complied with all the conditions mentioned in Circular dated 12th October,1993. The Legislature has conferred the power to condone delay to enable the authorities to do substantive justice to the parties by disposing of the matters on merit. The expression "genuine" has received a liberal meaning in view of the law laid down by the Apex Court referred to hereinabove and while considering this aspect, the authorities are expected to bare in mind that ordinarily the applicant, applying for condonation of delay does not stand to benefit by lodging its claim late. Refusing to condone delay can result in a....
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....etitioner 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 Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court in Sarvodaya Charitable Trust (supra) took a view that in cases like the present one (delay in filing Form 10B), the approach of the Authorities ought to be equitious, balancing and judicio....
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.... benefit of exemption should not be denied merely on account of delay in furnishing the same and it is permissible for the assessee to produce the audit report at a later stage either before the IncomeTax Officer or before the appellate authority by assigning sufficient cause." 14. Incidentally for the same A.Y. 2020-21, this Court in- (i) Little Flower Education Society vs. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) Mumbai & Ors. [Writ Petition No. 2057 of 2025 decided on 25th August, 2025], (ii) Dinesh Surendra Kotecha & Anr. v/s. Union of India & Ors. [Writ Petition No. 2657 of 2025 decided on 13th October, 2025] and (iii) Dakuben Saremalji Sancheti Nadol Charitable Trust v. CIT (E) & Ors. [Writ Petition (L) No....