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10. Ld. AR submitted that the assessee was engaged in charitable
activities; that the registration granted to it by tax authorities u/s 12A was in
force; that the assessee had been granted benefit of section 11/12 in
preceding assessment-years as well as subsequent assessment-years. He
further submitted that the assessee filed return of income on 03.08.2017 and
prior to such filing, the accounts of assessee were duly audited on 08.06.2017,
a copy of the audited-accounts is placed in the Paper-Book. However, the
auditors of assessee failed to upload the audit-report alongwith the return of
income. But, post-processing of return u/s 143(1) and before filing of first-
appeal, the assessee arranged to get the audit-report e-filed/uploaded on
03.04.2019 / 04.05.2019. Ld. AR submitted that the CIT(A) has, without
appreciating these facts, dismissed the appeal of assessee merely on a
technical defect that the audit-report was not filed alongwith the return of
income. Ld. AR submitted that except such technical defect, there is no other
reason to deny the benefit of section 11/12 to assessee. Ld. AR submitted that
the e-filing/uploading of audit-report is done by auditors and not by assessee;
therefore the defect is not per se attributable to assessee. Ld. AR submitted
that in any case, the defect is due to an inadvertent human error and the
assessee should not be denied the legitimate exemption, when the assessee is
genuinely doing charitable activities for the welfare of public and satisfying all
conditions prescribed in income-tax law for being entitled to exemption. Ld. AR
submitted that if the audit-report obtained by assessee on 08.06.2017 but
filed on 03.04.2019 / 04.05.2019 is accepted, the assessee would be entitled
to the benefit of exemption. Ld. AR placed a heavy reliance on the latest
decision of ITAT in Savitri Foundation Vs. ITO, ITA No. 1925/Mum/2021
(AY 2018-19) order dated 01.08.2022 wherein the AO made processing of
return u/s 143(1) denying exemption u/s 11 to assessee for the very same
reason of non-uploading of audit report before filing of return but subsequently
the assessee uploaded audit-report during the course of first-appeal; when the
matter reached ITAT, the Mumbai Bench has allowed exemption to assessee.
Ld. AR submitted that the decision taken by ITAT is directly applicable to
Arogya Seva Mandal
assessee. Ld. AR also submitted that the decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court
in Wipro Ltd. 446 ITR 1 relied upon by Ld. CIT(A) is quite distinguishable for
the reasons that (i) the said decision involved deduction u/s section 10B
whereas the present-appeal is concerned with exemption u/s 11/12; and (ii)
the said decision involved interpretation of sub-section (8) of section 10B which
is a negative provision i.e. it provides that if the assessee did not want to
apply section 10B, then the assessee had to file a declaration but this is not a
case in section 11/12.