High Court Bar Association v. CIT(E) (2022) 216 TTJ 27 / 210 DTR 297 (All.)(Trib.)

S. 12AA : Procedure for registration-Trust or institution-Rejection of assessee’s application for registration under section 12AA by the CIT (E) on the ground that it sought withdrawal of the application in view of revisionary petition filed under section 264, when in fact it had merely requested to hold proceeding for grant of registration in abeyance till disposal of revisionary proceedings, disposal of application was to be set aside and matter was to be restored back. [S. 264]

Assessee trust had applied for registration under section 12AA. Subsequently, the assessee had applied for revisionary proceedings under section 264 with respect to another proceeding. Accordingly, the assessee made an application before the CIT (E) to keep the registration in abeyance until the revisionary proceedings were concluded. However, the CIT (E) construed the application to be that of withdrawal of registration application and proceeded to reject the same. Aggrieved, the assessee preferred an appeal to the Hon’ble Tribunal who while remanding the matter back to the file of the CIT (E), observed that the assessee had requested for its application under section 12AA to be kept in abeyance till disposal of pending revisionary proceedings. However, the CIT (E) misinterpreted the assessee’s application to be for withdrawal of application and proceeded to reject the same. In such a scenario, the disposal of registration application was set aside and the matter restored to the file of the CIT(E). (AY. 2017-18)