Section 80IB deduction upheld despite hired equipment, as no substantial question of law arose on settled facts.

Deduction under section 80IB was examined for an industrial undertaking engaged in film production, where the Revenue argued that use of hired plant and machinery disqualified the assessee. The Court noted that the identical deduction claim had been accepted in earlier assessment years and followed consistently by the Tribunal, and treated the attempt to disturb that settled position as misconceived. It also found the Supreme Court ruling under section 15C of the 1922 Act inapposite because the real issue was not business reconstruction. The appeal was held not to raise any substantial question of law, and the deduction was upheld.

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Issues: Whether the Revenue's appeal raised any substantial question of law against allowance of deduction under section 80IB of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and whether the assessee was disentitled to the deduction on the ground that it did not own plant and machinery and carried on film production with hired equipment.

Analysis: The deduction claim was examined in the context of section 80IB(1), (2) and (3), which extends relief to eligible industrial undertakings satisfying the statutory conditions. The same assessee's identical claim had already been accepted in earlier assessment years, and the Tribunal's view had been followed consistently. The Court held that the Revenue's attempt to reopen the settled factual and legal position, including the contention that hired equipment defeated eligibility, was misconceived. The reliance on the Supreme Court decision under section 15C of the 1922 Act was found inapposite because the decisive issue here was not reconstruction of business but the repeated attempt to unsettle a consistent line of decisions on the same assessee and the same claim.

Conclusion: The appeal did not raise any substantial question of law, and the deduction under section 80IB was rightly allowed; the Revenue's challenge failed.

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