By Jagdish D. Shah, Jagdish Punjabi, Chartered Accountants
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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.
