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2018 (4) TMI 1762 - KARNATAKA HIGH COURTSpecific requirement of registration under section 12A - Eligibility to grant of registration u/s 12A - denial of exemption of corpus receipts under section 11(1)(d) of the Act and the denial of exemption as regards voluntary contributions on the ground that the assessee was not registered under section 12A of the Act as it held that there was no such requirement for grant of registration - HELD THAT:- Application filed by the assessee in the present case was on December 31, 1993 which was before the introduction of section 12AA which came into effect only from April 1, 1997. As per the substantive law applicable to the present case in force at the relevant point of time, the only condition mandated under section 12A to claim benefit of exemption under section 11 would be to have filed the application for registration of the trust in the prescribed manner before July 1, 1973 or before the expiry of a period of one year from the date of creation of the trust or the establishment of the institution whichever was later. There is no mandate in the law as it then stood to have applied and obtained registration to claim exemption. Mere filing of an application in terms of section 12A was sufficient to claim the benefit of exemption. The Central Board of Direct Taxes Circular No. 762 dated February 18, 1998 ([1998] 230 ITR (St.) 12 ) which provides for an explanatory note relating to the amendment stipulates that the amendment relating to exemption from income- tax in respect of income from a charitable or religious Trust or institution would take effect from April 1, 1997 which seeks to re-emphasize that the provisions of section 12AA which provides that registration is mandatory to claim exemption would come into force with prospective effect. As regards the finding of the Tribunal that the omission of the word "Prathisthana" in the name of the assessee-trust was the fault of the Department and not of the assessee for which the assessee cannot be penalised, the same being a finding of fact and not requiring any interference, no ground is made to entertain the appeals on the said finding. Tribunal was correct in holding that the assessee is entitled for section 12A registration by holding that there was no requirement for granting section 12A registration by the Commissioner of Income-tax for the period under consideration
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