Bhartiya Sadvichar Prasarak Mandal Vs CIT Exemption (ITAT Nagpur)
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Nagpur Bench, has set aside an order by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption), Pune, which rejected the application for registration under Section 12AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961, filed by Bhartiya Sadvichar Prasarak Mandal, a charitable trust. The ITAT’s decision, delivered on February 17, 2025, primarily hinged on the crucial procedural lapse of non-service of the rejection order to the assessee, granting the trust a fresh opportunity to present its case.
The appeal by Bhartiya Sadvichar Prasarak Mandal challenged the learned CIT(E)’s decision to reject its application for Section 12AB registration. The trust had filed its application in Form No. 10AB on March 31, 2022. The rejection order, dated September 30, 2022, cited the trust’s failure to respond to notices seeking further information and doubts regarding its very existence after a postal notice was returned unserved.
A significant hurdle in the appeal was a delay of 486 days in filing the appeal. However, the ITAT condoned this delay after reviewing an affidavit from the trust’s authorised signatory. The affidavit detailed that the rejection order was never physically served, nor did the trust receive any email or text intimations about it. The trust only became aware of the rejection on January 31, 2024, after receiving a text message about other income tax proceedings, prompting a login to the e-filing portal where the rejection order was discovered. The ITAT accepted that there was no “mala fide intention” on the part of the assessee for the delay, thus proceeding to hear the case on its merits.
