V. S. SIRPURKAR, J.

The petitioner herein, which is a society registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975, has filed this petition for a writ of mandamus to the first respondent herein directing it to register the petitioner under s. 12A of the IT Act, 1961 ('the Act').

The factual panorama is as under : The petitioner's claim is that the petitioner is the society for religious and charitable purposes. Its objects are running of orphanages and institutions to train orphans, widows and unemployed. Besides these charitable objects, there are some religious objects also such as establishment of churches and it is claimed that the objects are non-political and non-racial. The society is said to have been formed on 31st August, 1985 and was registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act on 15th November, 1985 and it was on 1st October, 1986 that the present application was made under s. 12A of the IT Act for registration thereunder. It was informed to the society by the respondent that the application was belated but besides this, it was suggested by the first respondent that the objects of the society should be amended.

The objection raised by the first respondent seems to be reflected in the communication by the first respondent dt. 1st December, 1986. The letter suggests that the memorandum of association/bye-laws should be suitably amended and it is only thereafter that the application for registration under s. 12A of the Act would be considered. The objections pointed out were that the application for registration was belated; there were clauses in the trust deed/memorandum of association/bye-laws which make the trust/society/association a religious one and, hence, not eligible for exemption under s. 80G of the Act; that there was no clear provision that the funds of the society would be invested in the modes specified under the provisions of s. 13(1)(d) of the Act, r/w s. 11(5) of the IT Act. It was also suggested that the memorandum of association did not specify the mode of disbursement of assets of the society in the event of dissolution. It was also pointed out that the memorandum should clearly state that its benefits would be open to all irrespective of caste, creed or religion; and the last suggestion made was that there should be a specific clause that any amendment to the memorandum would be carried out only with the approval of the CIT. In pursuance of this, it seems that the petitioner made an unsuccessful effort to get his bye-laws amended and ultimately it was intimated to the petitioner by a letter dt. 12th December, 1988 that the application can be taken up for consideration only after carrying out the suggestions made in the earlier letter. In short, the application for registration was not granted at this stage. It is by this action that the petitioner is aggrieved and comes before this Court for a direction as mentioned above.The learned counsel for the petitioner painstakingly invited my attention to the provisions of s. 12A of the IT Act and contended that the suggestions made by the petitioner were all in the nature of considering whether the income of the said trust would be liable to be exempted under ss. 11 and 12 , and more particularly, s. 80G of the Act. The view taken by the CIT, according to the learned counsel, was that because the society was of religious nature, such income would not be exempt under those sections and could not claim registration under s. 12A. According to the learned counsel, such a view was clearly impermissible considering the language of s. 12A.

The learned counsel avers that s. 12A is only procedural in nature and while considering the application under s. 12A of the Act, the consideration as to whether the society is for religious purposes or not, etc., would be irrelevant. According to the learned counsel, there were only two conditions for registration under s. 12A , they being, making an application within time and secondly, the