Smt. Venkatalakshmamma Venkatachala Vidhya Bharathi Education Trust Vs CIT (ITAT Bangalore)
Second Form 10AB Application Maintainable; CIT(E) Cannot Reject Registration Solely Because Earlier Rejection Was Not Challenged
The Bangalore ITAT held that there is no bar under the Income-tax Act preventing a trust from filing a second application for registration under section 12AB, merely because an earlier application had been rejected and such rejection was not challenged before the Tribunal. Accordingly, the Tribunal set aside the order of the CIT(E) rejecting the trust’s fresh application for registration.
The assessee-trust, engaged in running pre-nursery, primary and high schools as well as a PU college, had filed a fresh application in Form 10AB seeking registration under section 12AB. The CIT(E) rejected the application on two grounds: first, that an earlier application had already been rejected on 29.01.2025 and the assessee had not challenged that order; and secondly, that the trust had allegedly failed to respond to notices and furnish the required details.
Before the Tribunal, the assessee demonstrated that it had in fact furnished the required documents on multiple dates and had also filed detailed written submissions, supported by acknowledgements evidencing such filing. The Tribunal found that the CIT(E)’s observation that no reply or written submissions had been filed was factually incorrect.
The Tribunal further observed that the Revenue could not dispute the genuineness of the trust’s educational activities. More importantly, it held that the Act does not contain any provision prohibiting a trust from making a fresh application for registration merely because an earlier rejection order was not appealed against. Therefore, rejection of the application on this ground was unsustainable.
Accordingly, the ITAT set aside the rejection order and restored the matter to the file of the CIT(E) with a direction to examine the application on merits after granting adequate opportunity of hearing to the assessee. The appeal was allowed for statistical purposes.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT BANGALORE
This is an appeal filed by the assessee challenging the order of the Ld.CIT(E) dated 18/12/2025 in which the application filed by the assessee in form 10AB for registration u/s. 12AB was rejected.
