Mary Queens Mission Hospital Vs CIT (Kerala High Court)
Kerala High Court held that condonation application for delay in filing the audit report in Form-10B should have been considered without being too hyper technical and in a judicious manner.
Facts- The petitioners in these cases are entities registered u/s. 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961. For the assessment year 2022-2023, the petitioners were required to file their return of income by 31-10-2022 and therefore the audit report in Form-10B had to be filed on or before 30-09-2022. The due date for filing return of income for the assessment year 2022-2023 was extended by the Central Board of Direct Taxes for a period of seven (07) days, as a result of which, the last date for filing return for that year became 07-11-2022 and consequently, the last date for filing audit report in Form-10B was 07-10-2022. The petitioners did not file any audit report in Form-10B within the specified time. However they filed it on or before the date of filing of the return for the assessment year 2022-2023, which was, as already indicated, 07-11-2022. The petitioners, therefore, filed separate applications before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) u/s. 119(2)(b) of the 1961 Act praying that the delay in filing the audit report in Form-10B be extended. The Commissioner vide the order has rejected the applications for condonation of delay.
