Section 50C agreement-date valuation applies where advance consideration was received through banking channels before the sale agreement.

For section 50C purposes, where an agreement to sell was acted upon and substantial consideration was received through banking channels before the agreement, the proviso allows the stamp duty value on the agreement date to be adopted instead of the registration date value. The proviso was treated as curative, so the lower authorities' use of the later registration-date valuation was not sustained on principle. The assessee was therefore accepted in principle on agreement-date valuation under section 50C, while the exact stamp duty value as on that date was left for limited verification by the Assessing Officer.

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Issues: Whether, for applying section 50C, the stamp valuation as on the date of the agreement to sell could be adopted instead of the stamp valuation on the date of registration of the sale deed where substantial consideration had been received through banking channels before the agreement.

Analysis: The agreement to sell was acted upon, advance consideration was received through banking channels, and the later balance payments were also made in pursuance of the same transaction. The proviso to section 50C, introduced to address cases where the agreement date and registration date differ, was treated as curative in nature and applicable to the assessee's case. The authority followed the coordinate bench view that, where the statutory conditions are satisfied, the date of agreement must be taken for determining the deemed consideration under section 50C. Since the stamp duty value as on the agreement date had not been examined by the lower authorities, the matter required limited verification.

Conclusion: The assessee succeeded on the applicability of the agreement-date valuation under section 50C, but the question of the exact stamp duty value as on that date was remitted to the Assessing Officer for limited verification.

Ratio Decidendi: Where consideration or part of it has been received through banking channels before the agreement and the agreement and registration dates differ, the stamp duty value on the date of agreement may be adopted for section 50C purposes, and the proviso operates as a curative provision.

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