A bank could not be treated as an assessee in default under...

A bank could not be treated as an assessee in default under section 201 for not deducting tax at source from leave fare concession or leave travel concession payments to employees, because subsisting interim directions of the Madras High Court created a legal embargo on deduction during the relevant period. The Tribunal accepted that compliance with the interim court order prevented deduction of tax and that deduction contrary to that order would have been impermissible. Relying on earlier High Court and co-ordinate Bench authority, it held that default liability could not be fastened on the bank for the impugned non-deduction in the relevant assessment years, and allowed both appeals.