Section 12A read with sections 11 and 12 of the Income-tax Act, 1961

Court :
IN THE ITAT BANGALORE BENCH ‘B’

Brief :
Section 12A read with sections 11 and 12 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 – Charitable or religious trust – Registration of – Assessee-trust was created on 21-9-1988 – Assessee after omission of section 10(22), with effect from 1-4-1999 applied for registration under section 12A belatedly on 9-11-2001 and sought condonation of delay occurred in filing application for registration giving certain reason – Commissioner rejected application for condonation of delay and hence did not grant registration to assessee-trust from its inception – Whether since it had not been established that trustees or persons who were managing affairs of trust were aware of filing application under section 12A, it was a fit case for condonation of delay in filing application for registration – Held, yes – Whether, therefore, provisions of sections 11 and 12 would not be made applicable in respect of assessee-trust from its inception – Held, yes FACTS The assessee-trust was created on 21-9-1988. The assessee after omission of section 10(22), with effect from 1-4-1999 applied for registration under section 12A belatedly on 9-11-2001 and sought condonation of delay occurred in filing the application for registration giving certain reasons. The Commissioner rejected the application for condonation of delay holding, inter alia, that the explanation for condoing the delay must cover the whole period of delay, and that a couple of trustees were advocates and they were presumed to possess definite knowledge about the necessity to register a deed in time to claim recognition under section 12A. The Commissioner, therefore, did not grant registration to the assessee-trust from its inception. On appeal to the Tribunal:

Citation :
Kadur Vidhya Pratishtana v Commissioner of Income-tax,Mysore Gopal Chowdhury, Judicial Member And N. L. Kalra, Accountant Member IT Appeal No. 162(Bang.) of 2005