The assessee, a charitable trust, preferred an appeal against the order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Mumbai, whereby its application seeking registration under section 12AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was rejected. The assessee had earlier been granted provisional registration under section 12AB and thereafter applied for final registration by filing Form No. 10AB.

The Commissioner (Exemptions) observed that since the assessee was provisionally registered, the application for regularisation of registration ought to have been filed under section 12A(1)(ac)(iii). However, the assessee had erroneously filed the application under section 12A(1)(ac)(ii). Taking the view that there was no provision under the Act permitting rectification or amendment of the clause under which the application was filed, the Commissioner (Exemptions) rejected the application.

Before the Tribunal, it was contended that the defect was purely technical in nature and that all requisite details and documents for granting final registration were already on record. Upon examining the material, the Tribunal observed that for all practical purposes and from a documentation perspective, the application contained all necessary particulars required for consideration of final registration.

The Tribunal held that mentioning an incorrect clause of section 12A(1)(ac) constituted a technical breach and could not be a ground for outright rejection of the application. In the interest of justice, the Tribunal directed the Commissioner (Exemptions) to treat the application as having been filed under section 12A(1)(ac)(iii) and to adjudicate the same afresh in accordance with law, after providing an opportunity of being heard to the assessee.

Accordingly, the appeal of the assessee was allowed for statistical purposes.

Source Link- https://itat.gov.in/public/files/upload/1768281211-vP8TEe-1-TO.pdf

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