TAMIL NADU ADVOCATES CLERKS WELFARE FUND,CHENNAI vs. DDIT OSD, CHENNAI

All the appeals of the assessee are directed against the common order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Chennai, dated 18.03.2015 and pertain to assessment years 2005-06 to 2009-10. Since common issue arises for consideration in all these appeals, we heard these appeals together and disposing of the same by this common order.

There was a delay of 295 days in filing this appeals by the assessee. The assessee has filed a petition for condonation of delay. We have heard the Ld. representative for the assessee and the Ld. Departmental Representative. We find that there was sufficient cause for not filing the appeals before the stipulated time.

Shri R. Venkatesh, the Ld. representative for the assessee, submitted that the assessee claimed before the Assessing Officer exemption under Section 11 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (in short "the Act"). The Assessing Officer disallowed the claim of the assessee for all the years under consideration on the ground that registration under Section 12AA of the Act was not available. The Ld. representative further submitted that in fact, registration under Section 12AA of the Act was granted from the assessment year 2011-12 by the Director of Income Tax (Exemptions). Since registration was not available for earlier years and the Director of Income Tax (Exemptions) has no authority to condone the delay in filing appeal, the assessee approached the CBDT under Section 119 of the Act to condone the delay in filing the application under Section 12AA of the Act. In fact, the CBDT by an order dated 19.07.2016 condoned the delay in filing the application under Section 12AA of the Act. In view of above order of the CBDT, according to the Ld. representative, now the Director of Income Tax (Exemptions) has to examine the matter afresh for all the years under consideration and dispose of the application of the assessee on merit. The order of the Director of Income Tax (Exemptions) on the application filed by the assessee under Section 12AA of the Act will have a definite impact on the assessments of the assessee for all these years. In other words, according to the Ld. representative, if the Director of Income Tax (Exemptions) grants registration under Section 12AA of the Act, the income of the assessee would be exempted under Section 11 of the Act. Therefore, the Ld. counsel submitted that the matter may be remitted back for reconsideration.

We have heard Shri Supriyo Pal, the Ld. Departmental Representative also. Admittedly, the claim of exemption under Section 11 of the Act was rejected by the Assessing Officer on the ground that the registration under Section 12AA of the Act was not granted from the assessment years 2011-12. It is also an admitted fact that the Director of Income Tax (Exemptions) has no authority or jurisdiction to grant registration with retrospective operation. Now the CBDT has condoned the delay in filing the application for registration under Section 12AA of the Act. Therefore, the Director of Income Tax (Exemptions) has to examine the application of the assessee for registration under Section 12AA of the Act. As rightly submitted by the Ld. counsel for the assessee, if the order is passed by the Director of Income Tax (Exemptions) on the application filed by the assessee for registration under Section 12AA of the Act, it would definitely have an impact on the assessments of the assessee for all the assessment years under consideration.

In the result, all the appeals filed by the assessee are allowed for statistical purposes.