ITA No:- 1499/Hyd/2019- Authored by Manjunatha Accountant Member
"Coming back to case laws relied upon by the ld.DR for the Revenue. The ld.DR relied upon the decision of ITAT, Hyderabad Bench in the case of DCIT Vs. HES Infra Pvt. Ltd (supra), We have gone through the decision of ITAT, Hyderabad Bench in the above case, and we find that, the Tribunal has gone on sole premise of interpretation of statutory provisions in light of the decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai Vs. M/s. Dilip Kumar and Company (supra) and held that in case of a person claiming deduction under the provisions of Section 80IA(4), the onus is on the assessee to prove that the assessee has fulfilled all the parameters laid down by the statute for claiming deduction. Since the appellant has not entered into agreement with these Government / statutory authorities, there is a violation as laid down by the statute and the assessee is not entitled to claim deduction. With due respect, we are unable to follow the decision relied upon by the ld.DR for the simple reason that, in the above case, the Tribunal has not discussed whether the appellant is otherwise eligible for deduction under Section 80IA(4) of the Act or not. Secondly, while deciding the issue, the Tribunal has not considered the decision of co-ordinate bench in appellant's own case for earlier years and other decisions rendered by the co- ordinate bench of the Tribunal. Further, the Hon'ble Supreme Court, in a subsequent decision in the case of Government of Kerala and another Vs. Mother Superior Adoration Convent in Civil Appeal No.202 of 2012, after considering its earlier decision in case of Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai Vs. M/s. Dilip Kumar and Company (supra) held that the 5-Judge Bench did not refer to line of authority which made a distinction between exemption provisions generally and exemption provisions which have a beneficial purpose. The Court further held that they cannot agree with Shri Gupta's contention that sub-silentio the line of judgments qua beneficial exemptions has been done away with by this 5-Judge Bench. It is well settled that a decision is only an authority for what it decides and not what it matters logically follow from it. This being the case, it is obvious that the beneficial purpose of exemption contained in Section 3(1)(b) must be given full effect to, the line of authority being applicable to the facts of those cases being the line of authority which deals with beneficial exemptions as opposed to exemptions generally in tax statutes. This being the case, a literal formalistic interpretation of the statute at hand should be eschewed. Going by the subsequent decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the above case, it is undisputedly clear that exemption provisions should be interpreted liberally in order to achieve the objectives of the legislature"
Mr Manjunath has not followed his own view in SEW Infrastructure case and observed as under:- reported in 209 ITD 1(SB)
"32......At this stage, we are taking support from the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Vs. Dilip Kumar and Company, (supra) wherein the Hon'ble Supreme Court clearly held that beneficial provisions like, deductions exemptions provisions are required to be strictly interpreted and any perceived ambiguity would necessarily ensure to the benefit of the revenue. We further note that the Hon'ble Supreme Court, in the case of PCIT Vs. Wipro Ltd (supra) has also considered the interpretation of provisions of Section 10B of the Act and held that such an option should be exercised before the due date under Section 139(1) by way of filing a declaration. Although the said decision was in the context of withdrawal of exemption under Section 10B of the Act, in our considered view, when it comes to the interpretation of exemption and deduction provisions, the said provisions should be strictly interpreted so as to achieve the larger intent of the Legislature. Therefore, we are of the considered view that the arguments of the learned counsel for the assessee that when the appellant filed its return of income in response to a notice under Section 153A of the Act, it partakes the nature of the return filed under Section 139 of the Act and thus, all the conditions prescribed under Section 80A (5) and Section 80AC are satisfied is contrary to law and devoid of merit and cannot be accepted.
Meaning thereby the Accountant member has not followed his own view and has twisted his own view for the reasons best known to him. He has twisted the interpretation in his own way, so the president of ITAT must ask his explanation & Intelligence agencies must step in