Business income treatment for property receipts upheld where business objects and facts showed exploitation of immovable property

Receipts from rent, interest and sale of plot were treated as business income because the assessee's business objects covered acquisition, leasing and exploitation of immovable property, and the concurrent factual findings showed business-linked receipts. The depreciation objection regarding the let-out property was rejected because the claim related only to that property, and the Tribunal's reading of S.G. Mercantile Corporation P. Ltd. v. CIT was found to involve no tenable error. On that basis, no substantial question of law arose from the Tribunal's decision.

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Issues: (i) Whether the assessee's receipts from rent, interest, and sale of plot were assessable as business income; (ii) whether depreciation on the let-out property was wrongly denied, and whether the Tribunal misread the decision in S.G. Mercantile Corporation P. Ltd. v. CIT.

Issue (i): Whether the assessee's receipts from rent, interest, and sale of plot were assessable as business income.

Analysis: The assessee's stated business object covered acquisition, leasing, exchange, and exploitation of immovable properties. On the record, the income arose from sale or leasing of property and the appellate authorities recorded concurrent findings that the receipts were business-linked.

Conclusion: The receipts were rightly treated as income from business, and the Revenue's challenge failed.

Issue (ii): Whether depreciation on the let-out property was wrongly denied, and whether the Tribunal misread the decision in S.G. Mercantile Corporation P. Ltd. v. CIT.

Analysis: The depreciation claim was found to relate only to the let-out property, not to the entire property block. The Court also held that the Tribunal's view did not suffer from any tenable error in its understanding of the cited Supreme Court decision and was supported by the factual appreciation on record.

Conclusion: The depreciation objection and the challenge based on the cited precedent were rejected.

Final Conclusion: No substantial question of law arose from the Tribunal's decision, and the Revenue's appeal was rejected at the threshold.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the assessee's business objects and factual findings show that receipts arise from exploitation of immovable property in the course of business, concurrent findings treating such receipts as business income will not give rise to a substantial question of law in appeal.

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