Centre For Educare And Research Charitable Trust Vs CIT (Madras High Court)
Madras High Court has condoned a 44-day delay in the filing of the Form 10B audit report by the Centre for Educare and Research Charitable Trust for the Assessment Year 2021-2022. The court’s decision, delivered on July 5, 2025, came with a directive for the Trust to pay a cost of Rs. 5,000.
The charitable trust had filed its return of income and the audit report in Form 10B on March 30, 2022, and March 31, 2022, respectively, incurring a 44-day delay. The Trust subsequently filed a petition for condonation of this delay on March 1, 2023, before the first respondent, attributing the delay to its auditor, Mr. S. Vijayakumar, being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the first respondent rejected the condonation petition through an order dated December 25, 2024, without, according to the petitioner, adequately considering the reason provided. This prompted the Trust to file a writ petition challenging the rejection order.
During the High Court proceedings, the counsel for the petitioner reiterated that the delay was due to the auditor’s illness during the Covid-19 period, which persisted until the end of 2022. Conversely, the Senior Standing Counsel representing the respondents opposed the condonation, pointing out that the Trust had assigned the same reason for a delay in filing Form 10B in a previous assessment year.
