TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (9) TMI 145
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....on 119(2) (b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ("the Act") for A.Y. 2018-19. By the impugned order, the CIT (Exemptions), Mumbai (Respondent No. 1) rejected the Application dated 12th May 2026 filed by the Petitioner on 14th May 2026 seeking condonation of delay of two 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 an 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, ....
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.... the Centralized Processing Centre indicating the proposed adjustments under Section 143(1)(a) of the Act, it was stated as follows: "As per section 12A(1)(b) of Income Tax Act read with 1st proviso to Rule 12 (2) of the Income Tax Rules, where the total income of the trust or institution without giving effect to the provisions of section 11 and section 12 exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to income tax, the audit report in Form 10B has to be E-filed along with the return of income. Since assessee has not E-filed the Audit Report in Form 10B along with or before filing of the Return of income, the exemption u/s. 11, i.e., sr.no.1 & Sl. No. 4i to 4viii in Schedule Part B-TI is not allowed." 7. It appears that the....
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....ay 2026, seeking condonation of delay of two days in filing the audit report in Form 10B, which was rejected by the impugned order dated 25th May 2026. This has given rise to the present Petition. 11. We have heard Mr. Shah, the learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioner, as well as Mr. Bhosle, the learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the Respondents. 12. We find that due to the clarification issued by the Respondents in their affidavit-in-reply dated 22nd July 2026 that an application for condonation of delay in filing of Form 9A/10/10B/10BB beyond three years from the end of the relevant Assessment Year can be made before the CBDT, there is no further requirement for us to deal with the challenge to paragraph 3 of Circu....
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....x Court referred to hereinabove and while considering this aspect, the authorities are expected to bear 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 meritorious matter being thrown out at the very threshold and cause of justice being defeated. As against this, when delay is condoned the highest that can happen is that a cause would be decided on merits after hearing the parties. When substantial justice and technical considerations are pitted against each other, cause of substantial justice deserves to be preferred for the other side cannot claim to have vested right in injustice being done because of a non-deliberate d....
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....5 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 judicious and availing of exemption should not be denied merely on the bar of limitation. This is more so, when the legislature has conferred wide discretionary powers to condone the delay on the authorities concerned. The relevant portion of this decision reads thus :- "31. Having given our due consideration to all the relevant aspects of the matter, we are of the view that the approach in the cases of the present type should be equitious, balancing and judicious. Tec....