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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, ‘B’ BENCH, KOLKATA
Before: Shri Rajpal Yadav, Vice-(KZ) & Shri Rajesh KumarShri Abhijit Kundu, CIT, appeared on behalf of the Revenue
Per Rajpal Yadav, Vice-President (KZ):- The present two appeals are directed at the instance of assessees against the orders of ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption), Kolkata both dated 11.07.2023 passed on the respective appeals of the appellants.
The grievance of the assessees is that the ld. CIT (Exemption) failed to grant registration under section 12AB, sub- section (1), clause (b)(ii) of the Income Tax Act. The Registry has pointed out that is time-barred by 2 days and ITA No. 967/KOL/2023 is time-barred by 3 days. On perusal of the record, we are of the view that such delay might have occurred on account of calculation error. Considering the smallness of the delay, we condone it and proceed to decide the appeals on merit.
In response to the notice of hearing, no one has come present on behalf of the assessees. With the assistance of ld.
ITA No. 967/KOL/2023 Fatika Nazrul Sukanta Educational Training Center & Bara-Urma Samaj Kalyan Samity CIT(DR), we have gone through the record carefully. For the facility of reference, we reproduce the relevant part of the impugned order passed in ITA No. 963/KOL/2023, which reads as under:-
“The assessee has filed an application for registration under section 12A(1)(ac)(iii) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in Form No. 10AB. This application was found to be prima-facie non- maintainable and accordingly vide letter dated 14.06.2023, certain clarifications were sought from the assessee. The application filed by the assessee is premature as the earlier order in Form 10AC is still valid till A. Y. 2026- 2027. Accordingly the application filed by the assessee is treated as non- maintainable and for statistical purpose the application filed by the assessee is treated as ‘rejected’. However, no adverse inference is drawn against the assessee. MANISH KANOJIA CIT (EXMPTION), KOLKATA”
Verbatim same order is passed in except variation in the date of the letter i.e. 15th June, 2023 instead of 14th June, 2023 mentioned in the order reproduced by us. Therefore, we do not deem it necessary to reproduce the relevant part of the impugned order in ITA No. 967/KOL/2023.
A perusal of the above orders would reveal that ld. CIT(Exemption) did not adjudicate the applications on merit. He simply treated the applications as infructuous on the ground that the assessees are already enjoying registration. It is pertinent to ITA No. 967/KOL/2023 Fatika Nazrul Sukanta Educational Training Center & Bara-Urma Samaj Kalyan Samity mention that clause (c) of section 12AB, sub-section (1) provides for grant of provisional registration for a period of three years from the assessment year from which the registration is sought. The assessees are having provisional registration but they have applied grant of registration under section 12AB(1), clause (b) and nothing else. Ld. Commissioner was required to call for the documents and information satisfies himself and then grants the registration, which is valid for five years. The application was meant for grant of registration and not for provisional. Therefore, ld. CIT has misconstrued the application itself and erroneously dismissed them by treating premature in nature. The impugned orders are set aside and the issues are relegated to the ld. CIT (Exemption) for fresh adjudication.
In the result, the appeals of the assessees are allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open Court on 30/11/2023. Sd/- Sd/- (Rajesh Kumar) (Rajpal Yadav) Accountant Member Vice-President (KZ) Kolkata, the 30th day of November, 2023 Copies to :(1) Fatika Nazrul Sukanta Educational Training Center, At Fatika Rol, P.S. Indas, Bankura-722205, West Bengal (2) Bara-Urma Samaj Kalyan Samity,