COURT: | Bombay High Court |
CORAM: | B. P. Dharmadhikari J, P. N. Deshmukh J |
SECTION(S): | 49(1), 54EC |
GENRE: | Domestic Tax |
CATCH WORDS: | capital gains, exemption |
COUNSEL: | N. S. Bhattad |
DATE: | September 4, 2015 (Date of pronouncement) |
DATE: | September 11, 2015 (Date of publication) |
AY: | - |
FILE: | Click here to view full post with file download link |
CITATION: | |
S. 54EC: If REC Bonds are not available during the prescribed period, time for investment has to be extended. Fact that NHAI Bonds were available is irrelevant. Amount paid to sisters as per family arrangement for permitting transfer of property is decutible u/s 49(1) |
The bonds were admittedly not available during the said period. The fact that the Bonds issued by the National Highway Authority of India were available and hence the assessee ought to have invested in those bonds within the stipulated period of six months is not acceptable. Section 54EC gives assessee an option to invest either in bonds of National Highway Authority of India or then in bonds of Rural Electrification Corporation Limited. The said provision does not stipulate that the investment has to be in any bond whichever is available. Both bonds carry different benefits and hence deliberately the Parliament has given option to the assessee to invest in any one out of two as per his choice. In a given case, the assessee may choose to invest in both. However, discretion is conferred upon the assessee, who is the best judge of his own needs and interests. He cannot be forced to invest in the bond whichever is available because period of six months is about to expire. This option or discretion given by the Parliament to the assessee needs to be honoured here. If said option was available when period of six months was to expire and could have been expressed by the assessee when said period was about to expire, the situation would have been otherwise
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