Compensation awarded under an arbitral award made under Section...

Compensation awarded under an arbitral award made under Section 3G(5) of the National Highways Act, 1956 was stated to be exempt from TDS in view of Section 96 of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act, which the Court treated as applicable to post-enactment compensation, including acquisitions under the National Highways Act. It further noted that Section 194LA of the Income-tax Act did not require deduction for agricultural land and that the later proviso and CBDT circular only clarified the statutory exemption. Once the compensation was crystallised into a judgment debt, it had to be paid in full without deduction, and any amount already deducted was to be redeposited for disbursement to the claimants.