2026 (7) TMI 568

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....JUSTICE T.C.D. SEKHAR) 1. The petitioner is a society registered under Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1964, engaged in the activity of lending credit facilities to its members who are the employees of Bharat Electronics Limited, Machilipatnam, an organization under the Ministry of Defense, Government of India. 2. The respondent authorities issued notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 calling upon the petitioner to furnish its tax return as per Section 139(1) of the Act. Thereafter, the petitioner filed its return for the Assessment year 2019-2020 on 23.08.2023 along with an application seeking to condone the delay under Section 119(2)(b) of the Act, in furnishing the return by claiming deduction under Sectio....

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....d its income tax returns on 23.08.2023 for the Assessment year 2019-2020. It is pertinent to note that the Co-operative Societies had earlier were exempted from filing of its Income Tax returns by virtue of Section 80AC of the Act. This provision was amended with effect from 01.04.2018 by the Finance Act, 2018. By virtue of this amendment, the Co-operative Societies were required to file returns within the stipulated date. Further, as per Section 80P of the Act, an exemption is granted to the Co-operative Societies by allowing certain deductions from the income. The said deduction under Section 80P would be allowed upon furnishing returns within the time stipulated under the Act. In the case on hand, admittedly the petitioner filed its retu....

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....023, dt.26.07.2023 would be defeated. 9. Further, on a perusal of the order under challenge it is clear that the same was dismissed on the ground that the petitioner has not offered any plausible explanation for the delay caused in filing the returns. In this connection, it is to be noted that, whenever substantial justice and technicalities are pitted against each other, the Constitutional Courts have time and again held that substantial justice would prevail over the technicalities. As already observed supra, there is no dispute insofar as the fact that the petitioner is entitled to certain deductions under Section 80P of the Act, if the petitioner is allowed to file its returns. 10. Further, the authorities manning the Act have to ....