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Judgment
PER MANISH AGARWAL, AM :
The present appeal is filed by the assessee against the order dated 12.09.2025 by Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (A), National Faceless Appeal Centre (“NFAC”),Delhi [“Ld. CIT(A)”] in Appeal No. CIT(A), Delhi-40/10562/2019-20 passed u/s 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 [“the Act”] arising from the assessment order dated 26.03.2014 passed u/s 143(3)/147 of the Act pertaining to the Assessment Year 2008-09.
It is the 2nd round of the proceedings wherein in the 1st round, the AO has re-opened the case on the Ground that Form 10 was not filed though the assessee has accumulated more than 15% of the gross receipts. The claim of the assessee was that certain error was found in original Form 10 filed by the assessee thus the assessee filed the amended and corrected Form 10 alongwith the copy of resolution however, the same was not considered. Therefore, Co-ordinate Bench of Tribunal in ITA No.775/Del/2016 vide order dated 12.04.2019, has remanded the matter back for examination of the corrected Form 10 filed before the Tribunal as additional evidences and decide the issue in accordance with law. The Co-ordinate Bench further observed that mere on technical basis, legitimate claim of the assessee should not be denied as the assessee is a charitable organization registered u/s 12AA of the Act. However, in the 2nd round, the AO again repeated the same order stating that no revised Form 10 was filed by the assessee and further observed that revised and modified Form 10 was filed before the Tribunal, therefore, no cognizance of revised form 10 filed on 09.04.2019 was taken. Such observations of the AO were upheld by Ld. CIT(A).
Heard the contentions of both the parties at length and perused the material available on record. At the outset, it is seen that though the assessee filed Form 10 before the AO at the time of filing of return however, the same was found incomplete and certain mistakes were pointed out. The relevant copy of the Form 10 so filed alongwith the return of income was available at page 95 of the Paper Book. Thereafter, before the Co-ordinate Bench, the assessee has filed revised Form 10 dated 09.04.2019 as additional evidences based on which the Co-ordinate Bench has set aside the issue to the file of AO for verification of the claim made by the assessee through the revised/modified form. The coordinate bench further observed that mistakes pointed out by the AO are technical in nature which cannot be made basis for disallowance made by the assessee. However, the AO as well as Ld. CIT(A) has ignored separate finding of Tribunal and repeated the same order. The relevant observations of the Tribunal as contained in para 5 is reproduced as under:-
5.“We have heard the rival parties and have gone through the material placed on record. We find that original assessment was completed u/s 143(3) of the Act vide order dated 26/08/2010, a copy of which is placed at pages 1 & 2 of the paper book. In the original assessment proceedings the Assessing Officer did not raise any objection regarding not filing of Form10. The evidence in the form of copy of return of income and enclosures, as pointed out by Learned A.R. also, demonstrate the fact of having filed Form-10 along with the original return of income. Such evidences are in the form of copy of income tax return and list of enclosures placed at pages 1 to 20 of the paper book. However, the case of the assessee was reopened by recording the reasons that Form-10 was not filed by the assessee. The Learned CIT(A), after obtaining remand report from Assessing Officer, upheld the findings of the Assessing Officer that Form-10 was not on the record. The records demonstrated by Learned A.R. clearly shows that original Form-10 was filed by the assessee but the record of the Assessing Officer shows that Form-10 was not filed along with the return of income. Therefore, in view of these facts and circumstances, we hold that benefit of doubt has to be given to assessee. We further find that Form-10 submitted during assessment proceedings was also rejected by the authorities below as they observed certain mistakes and therefore, Learned A.R. has filed an amended and corrected copy of Form-10 and copy of resolution. The ~ 5 ~ benefit has been denied to the assessee on the basis of technical defects in the form but keeping in view the fact that assessee had in its possession evidence of having filed Form-10 aloongwith return of income in original assessment proceedings, we find it appropriate to remit the issue back to the file of the Assessing Officer with a direction to examine the corrected Form-10 filed before us along with the corrected copy of resolution as the mistake pointed out by the Assessing Officer during reassessment proceedings also were of technical nature which cannot be made a basis for disallowing the claim of the assessee as admittedly the assessee is a charitable organization registered u/s 12AA of the Act. In view of the above, legal ground taken as ground No. 1 is dismissed as not pressed and ground No. 2 is allowed for statistical purposes.”
Considering the overall facts as stated above and facts and circumstances of the case, we left with no other alternate but to accept revised and amended Form 10 filed as additional evidence and direct the AO to examine the modified Form 10 and decide in accordance with law. It is also clarified here that once the Tribunal has accepted the modified Form 10, the AO has no authority to again hold that no form was filed. With these directions, all Grounds of appeal raised by the assessee are allowed for statistical purposes.
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.