Bright Land College Vs ITO (Exemption) (ITAT Lucknow)
ITAT Lucknow order on Denial of Exemption under Sections 11 and 12 of the Income Tax Act, 1961; Clerical Omission in ITR Filing; Eligibility of Charitable Institution under Section 2(15)
Legal Issue: Whether the exemption under Sections 11 and 12 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 can be denied solely on account of an inadvertent omission to report application of income in the prescribed column of the Income Tax Return (ITR), where the assessee is a registered trust under Section 12A and the actual application of income for charitable purposes is duly evidenced and substantiated in the audited accounts and Form 10B.
Facts of the case :
1. The assessee, a registered society under Section 12A, filed its return of income electronically for the relevant assessment year.
2. In the return, income of Rs. 2,25,59,058/- was disclosed as “Income from Other Sources” in Part B-TI (Column 4).
3. However, Column 6(i) (relating to the amount applied to charitable purposes in India) was erroneously shown as “0”.
4. At the same time:
- Rs. 8,02,779/- was disclosed as amount accumulated under Section 11(1)(a) [Column 6(iv)].
- Deduction of Rs. 2,25,59,058/- was claimed in Column 6(x).
5. The Central Processing Centre (CPC) processed the return and computed the total income at Rs. 2,17,56,280/-, resulting in a tax demand of Rs. 84,92,230/- (including interest under Sections 234A, 234B and 234C).
6. The assessee contended before the CIT(A) that the error in Column 6(i) was inadvertent and occurred due to counsel’s oversight during e-filing, although:
