TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (9) TMI 975
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.....2025 filed in Form No. 10AB for renewal of registration under section 12AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 has been rejected. 2. The sole controversy arising in the present appeal is whether the Ld. CIT(E) was justified in rejecting the application on the ground that the assessee was not registered under section 12A/12AA prior to 01.04.2021 and, therefore, according to him, it could not have applied under clause (ii) of section 12A(1)(ac). 3. The relevant facts emerging from the record are that the assessee-trust was established on 11.10.2018 and is engaged in religious-cum-charitable activities. Its objects, inter alia, encompass religious purposes, relief of the poor, education, medical relief and advancement of objects of general publ....
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.... CIT(E) called upon the assessee to furnish its registration under section 12A/12AA prior to 01.04.2021, on the premise that the registration dated 02.12.2022 had been granted under clause (i) and that clause (i) contemplated an institution already registered under the erstwhile regime. 7. The assessee explained before the Ld. CIT(E) that it had never claimed to have been registered under section 12A/12AA prior to 01.04.2021. It was a new applicant under the new regime and had initially been granted provisional registration under section 12A(1)(ac)(vi) on 27.05.2021. Thereafter, while applying for regular registration, clause (i) was inadvertently selected on the efiling portal instead of clause (iii), which was applicable to an institut....
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.... assessee had selected an incorrect clause while filing its earlier application in the year 2022, the Department having itself granted regular registration thereon, such subsisting registration could not simply be ignored while deciding the subsequent application for renewal. Reliance was also placed upon the decision of the Ahmedabad Bench of the Tribunal in Sainath Education Charitable Trust v. CIT(E) [2025] 177 taxmann.com 582; 214 ITD 465, for the proposition that an application should not be rejected merely because an incorrect sub-clause has been selected when the substantive entitlement and the nature of application are otherwise apparent from the record. 11. We have heard the parties and carefully perused the material place....
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....ppears to have proceeded on the basis that the assessee ought to establish registration under section 12A/12AA prior to 01.04.2021 because its regular registration dated 02.12.2022 was granted under clause (i). However, the record itself demonstrates that the assessee's first registration under the new regime was the provisional registration granted on 27.05.2021 under clause (vi). Thus, the absence of any registration prior to 01.04.2021 was neither concealed nor disputed by the assessee. In fact, it was entirely consistent with the history of its registration appearing from the Department's own record. 14. If the selection of clause (i) in the application filed on 25.11.2022 was erroneous and clause (iii) ought properly to have been se....
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....uations and a bona fide selection of an incorrect sub-clause should not defeat the substantive claim for registration where the correct nature of the application is otherwise evident. Here, the case of the assessee stands on an even stronger footing because regular registration had actually been granted by the Department and was subsisting when renewal was sought. 17. We further notice that the Ld. CIT(E) has not rejected the application on any adverse finding regarding the charitable or religious objects of the assessee, genuineness of its activities or any violation of the conditions governing registration. The rejection rests entirely upon the perceived defect relating to the clause under which the earlier registration had been obtain....