Indore Education And Cultural Centre vs The Commissioner of Income Tax-I

The Indore Education and Cultural Centre has filed this petition for a direction to the respondent to treat the petitioner society as a society registered under Section 12-AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (The Act) with effect from 17 December 2002, which is the date on which it was formed and to issue the requisite certificate of registration.

It transpires from the records of writ petition that the aforesaid centre which claims itself to be a "Society" came into existence on 17 December 2002 and it applied for a registration under Section 12A of the Act on 21 March 2003 before the Commissioner of Income Tax, Kanpur. Placing reliance upon the provisions of Section 12-AA(2) of the Act, learned counsel contended that since an order granting or refusing registration has not been passed within a period of six months from the end of the month in which the application was received, the registration should be deemed to have been granted.

While dealing with the assessment order for the year 2006-07, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Lucknow Bench in ITA No.337 reversed the order of the First Appellate Authority in view of the reference answered by Full Bench of this Court on 5 February 2015 in Commissioner of Income Tax v. Muzaffarnagar Development Authority, (2015) 372 ITR 209 (All) (FB) that the decision of a Division Bench of this Court in Society for the Promotion of Education, Adventure Sport and Conservation of Environment v. Commissioner of Income Tax, (2015) 372 ITR (All), was no longer a good law and accordingly remanded the matter to the First Appellate Authority to take a fresh decision after providing an opportunity to either side.

This petition has been filed for issuance of the registration certificate.

Learned counsel appearing for the respondents has submitted that the application filed by the petitioner shall be duly examined in accordance with law and a decision shall be taken.

We, accordingly, dispose of this petition with a direction to the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Lucknow to take a decision on the application filed by the petitioner under Section 12AA of the Act expeditiously and preferably within a period of three months from the date a certified copy of this order is filed by the petitioner before him.