Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Hyderabad Central Institute Of Tool Design, ... vs Assessee on 8 July, 2015 THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL HYDERABAD BENCH "A", HYDERABAD BEFORE SHRI B. RAMAKOTAIAH, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER AND SHRI SAKTIJIT DEY, JUDICIAL MEMBER ITA No. 1563/Hyd/2014 Central Institute of Tool Design, vs. Director of Incometax Hyderabad. (Exemption), Hyderabad PAN AAEFC 8540 R (Appellant) (Respondent) Assessee by : Shri S. Rama Rao Revenue by : Shri M. Ravindra Sai Date of hearing 18062015 Date of pronouncement 08072015 O RDE R PER SAKTIJIT DEY, J.M.: This appeal of the assessee is directed against order dated 27/06/20123 of ld. DIT(E), Hyderabad, rejecting assessee's application for grant of registration u/s 12AA of the Act.. 2. There is a delay of 769 days in filing the appeal. Assessee has filed a petition seeking condonation of delay supported by an affidavit, wherein, the cause of delay has been explained in detail. It is stated by assessee in the petition that after the impugned order was passed by ld. DIT(E), the person incharge at the relevant point of time contacted some incometax professional for further course of action in the matter. Since, the incometax professional opined that in view of amendment made to section 2(15), the institution may not get registration u/s 12AA of the Act, appeal against the order of ld. DIT(E) was not filed. However, subsequently, the central auditors of the institution during the course of statutory audit of the society in July'14 observed that assessee is entitled for registration u/s 12AA of the Act 2 ITA No. 1563/Hyd/2014 Central Institute of Tool Design, Hyd. keeping in view the fact that similar societies of the central govt. functioning in other parts of the country spread over 10 states have been granted registration u/s 12AA of the Act. It was stated in the petition that after receiving the audit report in the month of August, 14, assessee society reviewed the entire issue and after discussions in the meeting of governing council of the institution at New Delhi on 27/08/14 decision was taken to engage services of tax expert for filing appeal before ITAT. Due to holidays and leave of the staff on account of Dasara and other festivals in the first week of October'14, appeal was prepared and filed finally on 19/10/14. Thus, it was submitted that the delay being unintentional and beyond the control of assessee, the same is to be condoned. 3. Ld. DR, though, opposed condonation of delay, finally, he expressed that he has no objection if the appeal is decided on merit. 4. Having considered the submissions of the parties and perused the material on record, we are of the view that delay is required to be condoned not only because of the fact that assessee is a central govt. institution but also due to the sufficiency of reasons shown by assessee for delay in filing the appeal. Accordingly condoning the delay of 769 days, we admit the appeal for hearing on merit. 5. Briefly, the facts are, assessee was established by the Govt. of India, under the Ministry of Small, Micro and Medium Industries with the technical help of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Assessee, as stated by it, is one of the 18 such Tool Rooms established by the Govt. of India across different states. Subsequently, the govt. of India had decided to register the tool rooms as societies and as per the said decision assessee was registered as a public society under the Andhra Pradesh (Telangana Area) Public Societies Registration Act, 1350 Fasli. The main object of assessee society is to provide training facilities to technical personnel in designing and making tools, dyes and moulds. Assessee 3 ITA No. 1563/Hyd/2014 Central Institute of Tool Design, Hyd. institution on 02/11/2007 made an application in the prescribed manner before ld. DIT(E) seeking registration u/s 12A of the Act. As appears from record, since, assessee failed to comply to a notice issued seeking certain information, application for registration was rejected vide order dated 23/04/2008. Being aggrieved of the said order of rejection, assessee preferred appeal before the ITAT. ITAT vide order dated 09/04/2009 in ITA No. 05/Hyd/09 set aside the order of ld. DIT(E) and remitted the matter back