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4. Being aggrieved, the appellant preferred an appeal before Ld. CIT(Appeals). During the course of appellate proceedings, Ld. CIT(Appeals) observed that the claim of deduction of Rs 25,83,187/- under Section 80JJAA of the Act has been rejected by the CPC for the reason that the appellant /Assessee failed to file the Form 10DDA within the prescribed time under the Statute. In this regard, the appellant /Assessee submitted that the said Form 10DA was duly uploaded by the CA on 01.10.2022 which is well before the extended due date of filing of return of income under Section 139(1) i.e. 07.10.2022, however, due to inadvertent mistake by oversight, such uploaded Form 10DA could not be "accepted" by the appellant company on or before 07.10.2022 i.e. due date of filing of return of income. Such Form 10DA was accepted by the assessee company on 06.01.2023 i.e. after the due date of filing of return of income under Section 139(1). The CIT observed that that as per provisions of Section 139(4), the last date for filing the return of income was 31.12.2022 and in this case, the appellant has filed Form 10DA even beyond the period prescribed under Section 139(4) of the Act. Accordingly, CIT rejected the appeal against claim of deduction under Section 80JJA of the Act, with the following observations:

" (i) As per Rule 19AB of the Income Tax Rules, 1962, it was mandatory for the appellant to file the accountant's report in Form 10DA along with the return of income u/s 139(1) of the Act, failing which deduction u/s 80JJAA will not be admissible in Akuntha Projects Pvt. Ltd. vs. DCIT (Now AO-ITO) Asst.Year -2022-23
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accordance with the provisions of section 80JJAA of the Act. In the instant case, though the form was uploaded by the CA on 01/10/2022 i.e. before the extended due date of filing of return of income, the same does not tantamount to filing of form 10DA as per the IT Rules, 1962. The process of filing of Form 10DA includes both uploading by CA and acceptance by the appellant together and if either of the process is not completed within the stipulated time, the same does not equate with filing of Form 10DA with in due date. Under the statute, it was mandatory to file the said Form 10DA within the prescribed time, failing which will make the appellant ineligible for claiming deduction u/s 80JJAA of the Act. Since, in the instant case, the process of filing Form 10DA was completed on 06/01/2023 i.e. after the extended due date of filing of return of income u/s 139(1), the claim of deduction u/s 80JJAA of the Act is not admissible.

In view of the above, I am of the considered opinion that the AO CPC has rightly disallowed the claim of deduction u/s 80JJAA as the Form 10DA was not filed within prescribed time. Accordingly, this ground of appeal is dismissed."

5. The assessee is in appeal before us against the aforesaid order passed by CIT confirming the disallowance of claim of deduction under section 80JJA of the Act. The counsel for the assessee submitted before us that in this case Form No. 10DA (Accountant's report) was uploaded on 01.10.2022, which was before the due date of filing of return of income, which had been extended till 07.10.2022. Accordingly, the Chartered Accountant of the assessee had uploaded Form No. 10DA for claiming deduction under Section 80JJA before the due date of filing of return of income, but admittedly, there was a procedural lapse on the part of the assessee, in not accepting the Form No. 10DA, filed by the chartered accountant of the assessee, before the due date of filing of return of income. The Counsel for the assessee submitted that this was a purely procedural and inadvertent mistake on the part of the appellant/assessee, wherein though the accountants report in Form 10DA was filed by the chartered accountant of the assessee, before the due date of filing of return of income, but due to a procedural mistake/lapse on the part of the assessee, he could not accept the aforesaid Form 10DA before the due date of filing of return of income. The Counsel for the assessee placed reliance on decision of Akuntha Projects Pvt. Ltd. vs. DCIT (Now AO-ITO) Asst.Year -2022-23

7. We have heard the rival contentions and perused the material on record. On going through the facts of the instant case, we observe that this is not the first year of claim of deduction under Section 80JJA of the Act and similar claim was also made by the assessee/appellant in the previous assessment year as well. From the facts placed on record, it is observed that the chartered accountant of the assessee filed Accountant's report in Form 10DA before the due date of filing of return of income. This position has not been disputed by the Department. Admittedly, the above report was not accepted by the assessee before the due date of filing of return of income. However, the Report in Form 10DA filed by the accountant of the assessee was accepted by the assessee on 06.01.2023, whereas in this case the order under Section 143 (1) of the Act was passed on 16.03.2023, denying the claim of deduction under Section 80JJA of the Act which means that at the time when the order under Section 143(1) of the Act was passed by the CPC, the assessee had accepted the Report filed by the accountant of the assessee in Form 10DA. It would be useful to reproduce the relevant extracts of the decision of Gujarat High Court in the case of Association of Indian Panel Board Manufacturer versus The CIT in Revenue Tax Akuntha Projects Pvt. Ltd. vs. DCIT (Now AO-ITO) Asst.Year -2022-23