Loading judgment…
Facts
The assessee, Maa Vaishno Education Trust, applied for registration under Section 12A(1)(ac)(ii) of the Income Tax Act in Form 10AB. Due to non-compliance with notices issued by the CIT(E), the application was rejected in limine without being considered on its merits.
Held
The Tribunal found that the CIT(E)'s rejection in limine was not on merits but due to non-compliance. The Tribunal set aside the CIT(E)'s order and remitted the matter back for fresh adjudication, directing the CIT(E) to provide the assessee an opportunity to present all necessary documents for registration.
Key Issues
Validity of rejection of a Section 12A(1)(ac)(ii) registration application in limine due to non-compliance, without affording an opportunity to be heard on merits.
Sections Cited
12A(1)(ac)(ii)
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, “C” BENCH, KOLKATA
Before: SHRI PRADIP KUMAR CHOUBEY, JM & SHRI RAKESH MISHRA, AM
(Assessment Year: --) Maa Vaishno Education Trust CIT (Exemption) 44/1/1, Italgachha Road, Income Tax office, 10B, Dumdum, Kolkata-700028 Middleton Road, Vs. West Bengal Kolkata-700071, West Bengal (Respondent) (Appellant) PAN No. AACTM2919A Assessee by : Shri C.M. Roy, AR Revenue by : Shri Praveen Kishore, DR Date of hearing: 10.06.2025 Date of pronouncement: 12.06.2025 O R D E R Per Pradip Kumar Choubey, JM:
This is an appeal preferred by the assessee against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) (hereinafter referred to as the “Ld. CIT(E)”] dated 14.06.2023.
The brief fact of the case is that the assessee has filed an application in form no. 10AB for registration u/s 12A(1)(ac)(ii) of the Act. The assessee has been noticed for necessary compliance but there was no compliance, as a result of which, application for registration u/s 12A(1)(ac)(ii) of the Act has been rejected in limine.
Being aggrieved and dissatisfied, the assessee has preferred the appeal before us.
The ld. AR instead of arguing into the merit of the case has only prayed that assessee has been given an opportunity to place all the materials before the ld. CIT (E).
Going over the facts of the case and on perusal of the impugned order it appears that the ld. CIT (E) has passed order, when there was no compliance of the notices from the side of the assessee. The order passed by the ld. CIT (E) is not on the merit rather he rejected the application in limine. Accordingly, we restore the appeal of the assessee before the ld. CIT(E) with a direction to dispose off the application after hearing the assessee by affording an opportunity to the assessee to place all the requisite documents relates to registration. The order passed by the ld. CIT(E) is set aside and the appeal of the assessee is remitted back to the file of the ld. CIT(E) for fresh order.
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.
Order pronounced in the open court on 12.06.2025.