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TMI Blog2025 (1) TMI 1121X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2.2023 for the assessment year 2016-17. 2. Brief facts of the case are, assessee filed its return of income for Assessment Year 2016-17 on 28.07.2016. Due to non-filing of Form 10B along with return of income, the claim of the assessee in proceedings u/s 143(1) of Income-tax Act, 1961 (for short 'the Act') for the claim of exemption u/s 11 of the Act was rejected and the receipts declared by the assessee of Rs. 15,69,680/- brought to tax and no other deductions were allowed. 3. Aggrieved, assessee preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT (A)-5, Mumbai and assessee has raised the issue of condonation of filing of Form 10B before the ld. CIT(A) and made a detailed submissions. It was submitted that the Form 10B was issued by the auditor on 16.06.2016 and ITR was filed by the assessee on 28.07.2016 declaring nil income after claiming deduction u/s 11(1)(a) to the extent of Rs. 13,38,326/- being income applied for charitable purpose and balance amount of Rs. 2,31,334/- was claimed as deduction. It was submitted that Form 10B could not be filed along with return of income due to technical glitches/issues at on IT Portal for online filing of form and relied on several decisions. After co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r realising this mistake and also filed an application before CIT(E) with condonation request for late filing of Form 10B online. He referred to the CBDT circular for late filing of the Form no 10B with condonation application before CIT(A) for the AY 2016-17 to 2018-19 as per circular No.3/2020 [F No 197/55/2018- ITA-I] dated 03.01.2020 and Circular No 28/2019 dated 27.09.2019 which was extended upto 31.03.2020 which was subsequently further extended upto 30.09.2020. 5.1 He further submitted that assessee is registered trust with CIT(E) for the last more than 50 years and the assessee is always regular in filing the Form 10B and the ITR in time and always abide by law. There could not be any intention to follow incorrect procedure for AY 2016-17, when the assessee followed the correct procedure in earlier years and in the subsequent years. 5.2 He submitted that there are number of judicial pronouncements by various High Courts and Tribunals on this issue that belated form 10B can also be filed and the exemption u/s 11 should not be denied to the public charitable trust on account of late filing of Form 10B and relied on plethora of judgements. 5.3 The assessee further submitted ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... me. He submitted that normally, a charitable or religious trust or institution is expected to file the auditor's report along with the return but in cases where for reasons beyond the control of the assessee some delay has occurred in filing the said report, the Income-tax Officer, for reasons to be recorded, has been authorized to condone the delay in furnishing the auditor's report and accept the same at a belated stage and it has been clarified that the exemption available to the trust under section 11 may not be denied merely on account of delay in furnishing the auditor's report. 5.7 He further submitted that in the case of the assessee, it is not in dispute that the audit report in prescribed form was obtained prior to filing of the return on 28.07.2016, therefore, there was no reason for the assessee to keep the audit report with it in order to loose the exemption. He further submitted that the assessee in the earlier as well as in the subsequent assessment years filed the audit report and got the exemption. He submitted that the conduct of the assessee in earlier year and subsequent years would prove that due to the facts stated above, there was delay in filing ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... competent authority to condone the delay. 7. Considered the rival submissions and material placed on record. We observed that assessee has obtained audit report in Form 10B before filing the return of income, however filed the same only on 20.03.2020. We observed that audit report date is prior to the date of filing of return of income and it is a procedural lapse on part of the assessee and it has filed Form 10B before its assessment completed u/s 143(1) of the Act. The claim of the assessee u/s 11 (1)(a) of the Act was denied with the reason that it has filed Form 10B after filing the return of income. 8. We have gone through the decisions relied upon by the assessee. In this regard, we observed that the ITAT, Delhi, on the same facts, in the case of ACIT vs. Green Dot Health Foods Pvt. Ltd. in ITA No.8414/Del/ 2019 dated 06.02.2023 decided the issue in favour of the assessee relying on the decision of Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of CIT vs. Contimeters Electrical (P) Ltd. (2009) 178 taxman 422 (Delhi). We also find that in the case of Green Dot Health Foods Pvt. Ltd. (supra), the coordinate Bench has considered the exact similar case and allowed the claim by observing ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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