Jawaharlal Nehru Educational & Charitable Trust Vs CIT (Karnataka High Court)
Petitioner sought quashing of the order passed by CIT(E) whereby the application filed by the petitioner u/s 119(2)(b) seeking condonation of delay of 151 days in filing the income tax returns & Form 10 in relation to the AY 2018-19 was rejected
Dept argued that there is no merit in the petition & the same is liable to be dismissed.
The High Court opined that CIT(E) has adopted hyper technical approach in refusing to condone the delay without appreciating that the inability & omission on the part of the petitioner to file I.T. returns & Form 10 within the prescribed period was due to non-compliance on the part of the tax consultant of the petitioner as a result of which, the petitioner could file the I.T. returns & Form 10 subsequent to expiry of the prescribed period. The Dept failed to appreciate that the petitioner could not file its I.T. returns & Form 10 within the prescribed period on account of bonafide reasons, unavoidable circumstances & sufficient cause, which clearly constituted genuine hardship on the part of the petitioner/assessee as contemplated in the Circular dated 09.06.2015 & failure to appreciate this, has resulted in erroneous conclusion warranting interference by the Court.
