The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) has granted relief to ISRO Employees Society by condoning the delay and directing National Faceless Assessment Centre ( NFAC ) to consider Section 80P(2)(d) deduction claims under Income Tax Act, 1961, taking into account the submitted affidavit.
Mr H.R. Suresh representing the assessee submitted that the present appeals have been filed belatedly before this Tribunal with a delay of 109 days for A.Ys. 2015-16 & 2017-18 and a delay of 99 days for A.Y. 2018-19. He also submitted that there was a delay in filing the appeal before NFAC of about 83 days in all the assessment years under consideration which was however condoned and the appeals were decided on merits.
Mr. Subramanian representing the revenue strongly opposed the condonation petition along with the affidavit filed by the assessee, however could not controvert the circumstances that led to the delay as mentioned in the affidavit
The bench observed that the ISRO was a prestigious organisation and was working towards the development of the country. The officials of the organisation are the office bearers of the assessee. It cannot be ignored that the office bearers were deployed with various responsible duties at the relevant period when the appeal should have been filed. It also cannot be ignored that these officials were undoubtedly working towards the development of the country and therefore their non-availability deserves to be considered.
A two member bench of the tribunal comprising Chandra Poojari ( Accountant member) and Beena Pillai ( Judicial member) deemed it appropriate to condone the delay as the reasons for the delay mentioned in the affidavits are sufficient to explain the delay caused in filing the present appeals before this Tribunal. ITAT therefore condoned the delay caused in filing the present appeals before this Tribunal in all the appeals under consideration. Accordingly, the application for condonation of delay dated 08.12.2023 stands allowed.
Further in a subsequent decision of the Supreme Court in case of Kerala State Co-operative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank Ltd. KSCARDB vs. The Assessing Officer, Trivandrum & Ors. (Supra), Supreme Court analysed applicability of Section 80P (2) (d) deduction to an assessee in great detail. The NFAC / CIT (A) was directed to consider the claims by the assessee in the light of the aforestated decisions by the Supreme Court in the interest of justice
ITAT remanded these appeals back to NFAC / CIT (A) for readjudication on merits. Accordingly, the appeals filed by the assessee stands partly allowed for statistical purposes
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