Judgment:
1. The Revenue has preferred this appeal under Section 260A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (for short, 'the Act') against the order dated July 31, 2008, passed by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench 'A' in I.T.A. No. 66/Chandi/2008 for the assessment year 2003-04, proposing to raise the following substantial question of law:
Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the order of the hon'ble, Income-tax Appellate Tribunal in condoning the delay in filing the application for registration under Section 12A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, is perverse as it is based on wrong facts and since the registration was not granted on the basis of the original trust deed?
2. The assessee is a trust which was created on February 26, 2002, and was registered with the Sub Registrar, Chandigarh. Application under Section 12A of the Act was made on May 29, 2007, which was beyond the stipulated time. The assessee filed application for condonation of delay, which was declined by the Commissioner. However, on appeal, the Tribunal held that there was sufficient cause for condonation of delay and the assessee was a genuine trust. Two of the trustees were NRIs and three of the trustees were I.A.S. officers. Delay in making application was on account of lack of awareness about the procedural provisions. The relevant observations of the Tribunal are as under:
Brief facts are that the two founder trustees, Dr. Raghbir Singh Basi and Dr. Gurdev S. Gill are residing in the U.S. and Canada respectively. Dr. Raghbir Singh Gill is aged about 80 years and is former Provost - V.C. of Alaska, Pacific University in Anchorage, Alaska. Dr. Raghbir S. Basi is the chairman of the assessee-trust. The areas of special interest are economic development, international trade and finance and organizational administration. He taught at New York University and at Kent State University from 1960 to 1978. He also served as consultant of the Planning Commission of India from 1967 to 1970 and on behalf of the Ford Foundation as Sr. Economic advisor to the Government of Saudi Arabia. Dr. Gill was the first Indo Canadian to earn a medical degree from the University of British Columbia and the first Indo Canadian to practice medicine in Canada. So far as the delay in filing the application is concerned, the plea of the assessee is that the assessee was in its infancy and the underhand projects were in the process of implementation and the main focus of the trustees was to execute these projects properly. They were also not aware about the income-tax laws in India. Even otherwise as claimed, the trustees wanted the first projects to be successfully completed as it was the basis on which the Government would also participate in this extraordinary venture along with various other NRIs. Due to success of their initial programmes in two villages, i.e., Kharaundi and Brahmpur completed in the year 2004, the Government of Punjab also started participating actively in this venture of the trust and even set up a Punjab NRI Development Committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, Punjab for proper implementation of the plans of the assessee-trust. Kharaundi village was named as model village No. 1 by the former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2003 because of the pioneering work of this foundation. Both the trustees also came to India on October 25, 2007, and October 28, 2007, respectively for the foundation work.
3. We have heard learned Counsel for the appellant.
4. It has not been disputed that there is power of condonation of delay. Question whether there is sufficient cause for condonation of delay is to be examined from case to case. The Tribunal has relied upon judgment of the hon'ble Supreme Court in Collector, Land Acquisition v. Mst. Katiji : [1987] 167 ITR 471, holding that court should have pragmatic and liberal approach and cause of substantial justice has to be preferred to technicality. The finding recorded by the Tribunal is not shown to be perverse, in any manner.
5. No substantial question of law arises.
6. The appeal is dismissed.