Mutuality applies to member-funded effluent treatment facilities; fresh factual pleas lacking record support were rejected.

Mutuality applied to a cooperative society running common effluent treatment facilities for its members, and the claim was sustained because the receipts were treated as member contributions for a common facility used for their benefit. The Revenue's allegation of receipts from Dombivili MIDC was rejected because it was not supported by the assessment record and no factual foundation had been laid before the lower authorities. A fresh factual plea can be entertained only where it arises from facts already on record and gives rise to a legal question. The Tribunal also followed the jurisdictional High Court's mutuality ruling in a similar effluent treatment association.

---

---

Issues: Whether the principle of mutuality applied to the assessee so as to sustain the claim under section 80IA and whether the Revenue's challenge based on alleged receipts from a non-member could be entertained.

Analysis: The assessee was a cooperative society formed to provide common effluent treatment facilities to its members. The Tribunal found that the Revenue's allegation of receipts from Dombivili MIDC was not supported by the assessment record and that no such factual foundation had been laid in the assessment proceedings or before the first appellate authority. A fresh factual plea can be entertained only when it gives rise to a question of law arising from facts already on record. The Tribunal also noted that the assessee's case was covered by the jurisdictional High Court's decision on the doctrine of mutuality in the context of a similar effluent treatment association, and the facts were materially similar.

Conclusion: The principle of mutuality applied, the Revenue's new factual ground was rejected, and the assessee's claim was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A factual ground not borne out by the assessment record cannot be raised as a fresh issue before the Tribunal, and where the receipts originate from members for a common facility used for their benefit, the doctrine of mutuality applies.

---