Fatima High School Vs ITO (ITAT Mumbai)
The Mumbai ITAT granted major relief to Fatima High School by holding that once the delay in filing Form 10 is condoned and the return is filed within the due date under section 139(1), exemption under section 11(2) cannot be denied merely on technical grounds.
The Assessing Officer had denied accumulation of ₹1.28 crore under section 11(2) on the ground that Form 10 was filed belatedly along with the revised return. The CIT(A) further proceeded on the incorrect assumption that the original return itself was filed belatedly under section 139(4A).
However, the Tribunal noted that the assessee had in fact filed its original return on 17.10.2016 within the due date prescribed under section 139(1) and the delay in filing Form 10 had already been condoned by the CIT(E) vide order dated 11.03.2020.
The ITAT held that once the technical delay stood condoned, the claim for accumulation under section 11(2) ought to be examined on merits instead of being rejected mechanically. The matter was therefore restored to the AO for fresh adjudication after verifying the relevant details.
The Tribunal also gave relief on the issue of voluntary donations wrongly treated as taxable, observing that even if a donation is not a corpus donation, it still requires examination whether the amount was applied towards the charitable objects of the trust and therefore eligible for exemption under section 11.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT MUMBAI
The assessee has filed the present appeal against the impugned order dated 21.11.2025, passed under section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“the Act”) by the learned Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) National Faceless Appeal Centre, Delhi [“learned CIT(A)”], for the assessment year 2016-17.
