Charitable Trust Motilal Gulab Devi Fatehpuria Vs ITO (Exemption) (ITAT Jaipur)
Summary: The Jaipur Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal considered the appeal of Charitable Trust Moti lal Gulab Devi Fatehpuria for AY 2023-24 against the appellate order dated 24.02.2025 of the Addl./Jt. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-2, Chandigarh, arising from an intimation under Section 143(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The assessee, a public charitable trust registered under Section 12AB, filed its return in ITR-7 on 05.11.2023 declaring nil income after claiming exemption under Section 11. For the first year of the changeover in the applicable audit report for AY 2023-24, the assessee filed Form 10B on 28.10.2023 instead of Form 10BB. The return was processed on 25.11.2024 and the entire Section 11 exemption was denied for non-filing of Form 10BB, resulting in determination of income at Rs. 8,22,391/- and a tax demand. The first appellate authority dismissed the appeal because Form 10BB had not been furnished within the extended time permitted by CBDT Circular No. 2/2024 dated 05.03.2024, which extended the uploading date to 31.03.2024; the assessee uploaded Form 10BB on 21.12.2024.
Before the Tribunal, the assessee challenged the denial of exemption merely because Form 10B had been uploaded instead of Form 10BB. The Tribunal observed that the issue of late filing of Form 10BB was no more res integra and relied upon the Rajasthan High Court judgment in Khandelwal Vaishya Samaj Charitable Trust -Vs- CIT(E), Civil Writ Petition No. 5829/2020, dated 03.09.2025. The High Court extract reproduced in the order emphasised that a charitable trust should not be denied exemption merely on limitation where the delay is bona fide and the authorities possess discretionary power to condone it.
