The assessee received enhanced compensation on compulsory acquisition of agricultural land, including interest under section 28 of the Land Acquisition Act, and claimed exemption under section 10(37). The AO, after examining the claim during scrutiny, accepted the exemption. The PCIT invoked section 263 on the ground that the interest was taxable as “Income from Other Sources” in view of the decision in Mahender Pal Narang, The Hon’ble Tribunal held that the AO had made due enquiries and accepted the claim by following the Supreme Court decision in Ghanshyam (HUF), which treated interest under section 28 as part of enhanced compensation. Since the issue was debatable and the AO had adopted one of the possible views, the assessment order could not be held to be erroneous and prejudicial to the interests of the Revenue. Accordingly, the order passed under section 263 was quashed. The appeal was allowed. [AY.2018-19]
Pawan Kumar v. Pr. CIT (2025) 130 ITR 132 (Delhi)(Trib.)
S. 263: Commissioner-Revision of orders prejudicial to revenue-AO having accepted the claim that interest received on enhanced compensation formed part of compensation exempt under section 10(37), revision under section 263 was not justified as the issue was debatable and the AO had adopted a possible view. [S. 10(37), 45, 56(2)(viii)]
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