Part B — Unreported Decisions
(Full texts of the following Tribunal decisions are available at the Society’s office on written request. For members desiring that the Society mails a copy to them, Rs.30 per decision will be charged for photocopying and postage.)
5 The Indus Entrepreneur v. The CIT-II
ITAT ‘B’ Bench, Jaipur
Before I. C. Sudhir (JM) and
B. P. Jain (AM)
ITA No. 32/JP/2008
A.Y. : 2003-04. Decided on : 20-6-2008
Counsel for assessee/revenue : Mahendra Gargieya/
J. L. Basumatari
Assessee society was registered under Rajasthan Societies Registration Act on 1-9-2005 — Assessee applied to CIT for registration u/s.12A(a) of Income-tax Act, 1961 — CIT vide his order dated 7-11-2007 granted registration w.e.f. 1-4-2007 — Whether once CIT is satisfied about objects of the trust and genuineness of activities, he is required to grant registration w.e.f. 1-9-2005 — Held, Yes.
Per B. P. Jain :
Facts :
The assessee is a Society registered under Rajasthan Societies Registration Act on 1-9-2005. The assessee applied for registration on 10-4-2007 before the CIT. The CIT granted registration u/s.12A(a) of the Act vide its order dated 7-11-2007 w.e.f. 1-4-2007. The assessee made application to make the said registration effective from 1-9-2005.
Held :
At the outset, the Tribunal noted that the CIT has committed an error by observing that the application has been made on 10-4-2007, whereas the same was made on 2-8-2006. A reminder letter dated 10-4-2007 was made to the CIT, which was wrongly taken as the date of application. Having noted this error, the Tribunal held as under :
As per the Act, the assessee is required to make the application in Form 10A before 1-1-1973 or before the expiry of the period of one year from the date of creation of the trust. In the instant case, the Trust was created on 1-9-2005 and the assessee has submitted the application on 2-8-2006, which is in time. The CIT is required to grant registration w.e.f. 1-9-2005, if he is satisfied about the objects of the trust and genuineness of the activities. In the present case, the learned CIT is satisfied about the objects and genuineness of the activities of the trust and so he has granted registration, though from a wrong date on a wrong interpretation of the facts of the case.
The learned CIT is required to pass an order for granting or refusing the registration u/s.12AA(1)(b) of the Act before 6 months from the end of the month in which the application is received. The language of the provision makes it mandatory for the learned CIT either to grant or refuse the registration within the stipulated period, failing which the assessee is entitled to assume that its application has been accepted and the registration granted.
Accordingly, the learned CIT was directed to grant registration w.e.f. 1-9-2005.
Editor’s note : S. 12AA has been amended w.e.f. 1-6-2007, whereby the exemption is now available from the financial year in which the application is made.