Applicability of Section 115JB: exclusion from Schedule VI-format accounts bars its invocation for the assessment year.

Assessee not required to prepare profit and loss account and balance sheet in the forms prescribed by Parts II and III of Schedule VI, and therefore the prescribed format-based requirement for invoking the income tax provision for book profit does not apply; applying the connected earlier judgment, the statutory regime governing the assessee excludes Schedule VI format obligations, and consequently the income tax provision under consideration cannot be invoked for the assessment year, resulting in dismissal of the revenue's appeal in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the assessee is governed by different Acts and Rules and is not required to prepare its profit and loss account and balance sheet as per Part II and Part III of Schedule VI of the Companies Act, and consequently whether Section 115JB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 is not invokable for the assessment year 2010-2011.

Analysis: The issue addresses whether the format and content requirements of Part II and Part III of Schedule VI of the Companies Act apply to the assessee for the relevant assessment year and whether exclusion from those requirements precludes invocation of Section 115JB of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The resolution follows the Court's prior reasoning in the connected judgment dated 16.01.2020 which examined the statutory framework including Section 115JB and the provisions concerning preparation of financial statements under Schedule VI of the Companies Act and concluded that the assessee was governed by a different statutory regime and rules that did not mandate preparation of profit and loss account and balance sheet strictly in the form prescribed by Parts II and III of Schedule VI; accordingly Section 115JB could not be applied in that context. The revenue did not dispute that the present substantial question of law was answered by that prior decision.

Conclusion: The substantial question of law is answered in favour of the assessee and against the revenue; the provisions of Section 115JB cannot be invoked in the instant case because the assessee is not required to prepare accounts under Part II and Part III of Schedule VI of the Companies Act for the assessment year in question, and the revenue's appeal is dismissed.

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