Month: November 2018

Archive for November, 2018


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DATE: August 20, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 16, 2018 (Date of publication)
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S. 254(2): (i) Mere pendency of appeal in the High Court does not preclude the Tribunal's power of rectification, (ii) Fact that there is difference of opinion between the two members of the Tribunal would, by itself, nor mean that the error sought to be rectified is not apparent on the record & (iii) The Tribunal has no jurisdiction to recall an order based on submissions made and upon consideration of materials on record. The power of rectification are circumscribed with the condition that the same can be exercised for correcting error be of law or facts apparent on record. The jurisdiction to correct errors vested in the Tribunal is not akin to review powers

Whatever be the correctness of these findings it cannot be stated that the Tribunal arrived at such findings without proper consideration of materials on record. Several issues were presented before the Tribunal and were examined before coming to such specific finding. The Tribunal could not have recalled the entire order under purported exercise of rectification powers. It is well settled through series of judgements of this Court and the Supreme Court that power of rectification are circumscribed with the condition that the same can be exercised for correcting error be of law or facts apparent on record. The jurisdiction to correct errors vested in the Tribunal is not akin to review powers. As noted, the Accountant Member, while showing inclination to exercise rectification powers, had not cited any reason in support of his opinion

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DATE: June 25, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 13, 2018 (Date of publication)
AY: 2006-07
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CITATION:
S. 253: Delay of 2819 days in filing the appeal caused by the fault of CA/ Counsel has to be condoned. the expression “sufficient cause” should be interpreted to advance substantial justice. If there is "sufficient cause", the period of delay cannot be regarded as excessive or inordinate (All judgements considered)

Under the scheme of Constitution, the Government cannot retain even a single pie of the individual citizen as tax, when it is not authorised by an authority of law. Therefore, if we refuse to condone the delay, that would amount to legalise an illegal and unconstitutional order passed by the lower authority. Therefore, in our opinion, by preferring the substantial justice, the delay of 2819 days has to be condoned

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DATE: October 8, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 13, 2018 (Date of publication)
AY: 2013-14, 2014-15
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CITATION:
S. 253 Condonation of delay: An assessee supported by large number of CAs & Advocates cannot seek condonation of delay on the ground that the officer handling the issue was transferred. A party cannot sleep over its rights and expect its appeal to be entertained. The fact that the issue on merits is covered in favour of the assessee makes no difference to the aspect of condonation of delay

The assessee is a scheduled bank supported by a large number of personnel and also assisted by qualified Chartered Accountants and Advocates. The reason as come out from the condonation petitions filed by the assessee, as stated earlier, is that there was transfer of the officer who was handling the issue. We cannot accept such proposition as it cannot be considered as good and sufficient reason to condone the delay. It was submitted that the delay is to be condoned since the issue on merit covered in favour of the assessee. This submission ignores the fact that the object of the law of limitation is to bring certainty and finality to litigation

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DATE: October 23, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 13, 2018 (Date of publication)
AY: 2011-12
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CITATION:
S. 4: Law on whether compensation received on closure/ termination of business activity resulting in loss of source of income, impairing its profit making structure or sterilization of profit making apparatus can be assessed as a revenue receipt or it is a capital receipt which is not chargeable to tax explained after referring to important judgements on the subject

Where, on a consideration of the circumstances, payment is made to compensate a person for cancellation of a contract which does not affect the trading structure of his business, nor deprive him of what in substance is his source of income, termination of the contract being a normal incident of the business, and such cancellation leaves him free to carry on his trade (freed from the contract terminated), the receipt is revenue : where by the cancellation of an agency the trading structure of the assessee is impaired, or such cancellation results in loss of what may be regarded as the source of the assessee’s income, the payment made to compensate for cancellation of the agency agreement is normally a capital receipt.

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DATE: April 16, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 9, 2018 (Date of publication)
AY: 2003-04
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CITATION:
S. 147 Reopening of s. 143(1) intimation: The submission of the Dept that in view of Rajesh Jhaveri 291 ITR 500 (SC), the AO can reopen the assessment for "whatever reason" is preposterous. The AO cannot reopen on the basis of info received from DIT (Investigation) that a particular entity has entered into suspicious transactions without linking it to the assessee having indulged in activity which could give rise to reason to believe that income has escaped assessment. Such reopening amounts to a fishing inquiry. The AO has to apply his mind to the information received by him from the DDIT (Inv.) and cannot act on on borrowed satisfaction

The reasons clearly shows that the Assessing Officer has not applied his mind to the information received by him from the DDIT (Inv.). The Assessing Officer has merely issued a reopening notice on the basis of intimation regarding reopening notice from the DDIT (Inv.) This is clearly in breach of the settled position in law that reopening notice has to be issued by the Assessing Office on his own satisfaction and not on borrowed satisfaction

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DATE: November 5, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 9, 2018 (Date of publication)
AY: 2014-15
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CITATION:
S. 10(38)/68 Bogus long-term capital gains from penny stocks: It cannot be inferred that the assessee has manipulated the share price merely because it moved up sharply. The AO has to produce material/evidence to show that the assessee/ brokers did price rigging/manipulation of shares. The AO must also show that the relevant evidence produced by the assessee in the form of bills, contract notes, demat statement, bank account etc to prove the genuineness of the transactions are false or fictitious or bogus (All judgements considered)

We note that in the absence of material/evidence the allegations that the assessee/brokers got involved in price rigging/manipulation of shares must therefore also fail. At the cost of repetition, we note that the assessee had furnished all relevant evidence in the form of bills, contract notes, demat statement and bank account to prove the genuineness of the transactions relevant to the purchase and sale of shares resulting in long term capital gain. These evidences were neither found by the AO nor by the ld. CIT(A) to be false or fictitious or bogus. The facts of the case and the evidence in support of the evidence clearly support the claim of the assessee that the transactions of the assessee were genuine and the authorities below was not justified in rejecting the claim of the assessee that income from LTCG is exempted u/s 10(38)

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DATE: October 30, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 6, 2018 (Date of publication)
AY: -
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CITATION:
Interpretation of statutes: Effect of repeal of a statute u/s 6 of the General Clauses Act on pending proceedings explained in the context of the Gold Control Act and in view of law laid down in State of Punjab vs. Mohar Singh [1955] 1 SCR 893, New India Assurance Co. Ltd. vs. C. Padma (2003) 7 SCC 713 etc

The statement of objects and reasons makes it clear that over 22 years, the results achieved under the Act have not been encouraging and the desired objectives for which the Act has been introduced have failed. Following the advice of experts, who have examined issues related to the Act, the objects and reasons goes on further to state that this Act has proved to be a regressive measure which has caused considerable dissatisfaction in the minds of the public and hardship and harassment to artisans and small self-employed goldsmiths. This being the case, we are of the opinion that the repeal simpliciter, in the present case, does not attract the provisions of Section 6 of the General Clauses Act as a contrary intention is very clearly expressed in the statement of objects and reasons to the 1990 repeal Act

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DATE: October 29, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 6, 2018 (Date of publication)
AY: 2011-12
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CITATION:
S. 2(47) Transfer for Capital Gains: The fact that an agreement for sale of property is registered does not make it a conveyance. The sale or transfer is not complete on the date of the execution of the agreement if there are obligations to be fulfilled by both parties

The sale or transfer was not complete on the date of the execution of the agreement as is now urged and erroneously understood by the Assessing Officer and the Commissioner. The Tribunal was right in its conclusion that on facts, the agreement executed on 14th February, 2011 is but an agreement for sale of immovable property. The law then prevailing required such an agreement to be registered. In any event merely because it is registered, that does not partake the character of a conveyance or a sale deed automatically. Thus, the possession also was not handed over but was to be handed over on compliance with certain obligations by the Vendor

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DATE: October 24, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 6, 2018 (Date of publication)
AY: 2011-12
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CITATION:
S. 9(1)(vi) Royalty/ 40(a)(i): Law explained on whether payment of web hosting charges to Amazon Web Services LLC (USA) (AWS) constitutes "royalty" under Explanation 2 to s. 9(1)(vi) read with the India USA DTAA and whether there is any obligation to deduct TDS thereon u/s 195

The aspect which needs to be seen is whether the assessee is paying consideration for getting any right in respect of any property. The assessee claims that it does not pay for such right but it only pays for the services. The claim of assessee before us was that it was only using services provided by Amazon and was not concerned with the rights in technology. The fees paid by assessee was for use of technology and cannot be said to be for use of royalty, which stands proved by the factum of charges being not fixed but variable i.e. it varies with the use of technology driven services and also use of such services does not give rise to any right in property of Amazon and consequently, Explanation under section 9(1)(vi) of the Act is not attracted

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DATE: July 2, 2018 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 3, 2018 (Date of publication)
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CITATION:
S. 250/ 254: If a decision is challenged by the assessee both on the issue of jurisdiction as well as on merits, the appellate authority has to decide both issues. He cannot decline to decide one of the issues on the basis that the decision on the other issue renders it academic. This approach leads to multiplication of proceedings and leads to delay

Examining the present case on the touchstone of above said case law, we find that the order of the ld. CIT(A) here directly falls under the ambit of Hon’ble High Court’s order as above. The ld. CIT(A) has decided one issue and has left undecided another issues duly raised before him. Hence, we are of the considered opinion that these issues relating to validity of reopening were duly raised, which have been left undecided by the ld. CIT(A) and need to be remitted to the file of the ld. CIT(A). The ld. CIT(A) is directed to complete his appellate order by deciding on these issues regarding the validity of reopening which were duly raised before him by the assessee