SHYAMALAMMA KIDNEY FOUNDATION,NELLORE vs. CIT (EXEMPTIONS), HYDERABAD, HYDERABAD

The Assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal:

Brief facts of the case are that the assessee filed application in Form No.10AB dated 05.10.2025 seeking registration under Section 12AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The assessee is a public charitable trust constituted under a trust deed dated 18.01.2012 and registered with the District Registrar, Nellore, vide Registration No. 42 of 2012. Its sole charitable object is medical relief, and it provides dialysis assistance to economically weaker sections of society. The assessee was granted registration under Section 12AA of the Act on 20.12.2012. However, it did not file Form No. 10A within the prescribed period for migration of its existing registration to the new regime under Section 12AB. Subsequently, on 05.10.2025, the assessee filed an application in Form No. 10AB under item (B) of sub-clause (vi) of Section 12A(1)(ac), along with a petition seeking condonation of delay. It explained that its chartered accountant practiced at Chennai, approximately 200 kilometers away, and that the trustees were under the bonafide belief that no fresh application was necessary in view of the subsisting registration already granted under Section 12AA. The assessee further submitted that its corpus of Rs.46,74,731 was invested in the modes prescribed under Section 11(5) of the Act. The application was rejected solely on the ground that, having held registration under Section 12AA, the assessee ought to have applied under Section 12A(1)(ac)(i) by filing Form No. 10A before the CPC. Accordingly, the application filed under item (B) of sub-clause (vi) was treated as invalid. The impugned order does not record any adverse finding regarding the charitable objects or the genuineness of the assessee's activities. On the contrary, column 2A of the order itself describes the nature of the assessee's activities as "Charitable". The assessee contends that it furnished all relevant particulars, including the trust deed, registration certificate, objects of the trust, details of trustees, bank account particulars, corpus, investments and income, together with a declaration that no exemption had been claimed under Sections 11 and 12 thereafter. Thus, according to the assessee, the defect was confined to the selection of the relevant statutory provision in the dropdown menu of the electronic application form, and the application ought not to have been rejected on that technical ground without considering its substance and the request for condonation of delay. The assessee, therefore, seeks appropriate relief from the Tribunal against the rejection of its application for registration under Section 12AB of the Act.

Aggrieved by the above order, assessee is in appeal before this Tribunal.

On the other hand, the learned Departmental Representative did not raise any serious objection, if the matter is remitted back to the file of the Ld. CIT(E).

We, after hearing the rival submissions of the parties and perusing the material available on record, we find that in the present case of the assessee, the assessee is seeking renewal of registration u/s.12A(1)(ac)(vi) of the Act, which was stated to be filed by the assessee, and while filling the form due to an inadvertent mistake, chose a wrong column, and the application of the assessee was rejected. Since the assessee prayed for remitting back the issue to the file of the Ld.CIT(E), with a direction to re-examine the issue afresh by affording another opportunity of being heard, therefore, the instant issue is remitted back to the file of the Ld.CIT(E), with a direction to re-examine the issue and pass an appropriate order in accordance with law after affording a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee, if necessary, the assessee is at liberty to file the corrected form by selecting the appropriate column. The assessee is also directed to substantiate its claim before the Ld.CIT(E) without any fail. In terms of the above, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.

In the result, appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.