TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2010 (8) TMI 482
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....development agreement with builder M. A. Mohan Kumar on July 8, 2002, to develop the said property. According to the agreement, the assessee is the owner of the property bearing No. 69 (old 17 and later 46) situated at Govindappa Road, Basavanagudi, Bangalore-2, measuring 30' x 110'. The builder agreed to construct residential apartments and agreed to deliver 48 per cent. of the super built area to the assessee in the form of residential apartments. The entire cost of construction and other expenses are to be borne by the builder. Accordingly, as agreed, the builder constructed eight flats and handed over four flats to the assessee. Out of the four flats, she gifted three flats to her sons and retained one flat for her use. The builder, out....
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.... 4. The assessing authority, on the aforesaid facts, held that the consideration received by the assessee is Rs. 40,54,200 as against Rs. 22,93,650 declared by her being the value of 1,699 sq. ft. of land being 52 per cent. of the site transferred to the builder. Accordingly, a sum of Rs. 21,73,880 was held to be the capital gain. Therefore, it was concluded that the assessee had furnished inaccurate particulars of income by declaring the value of portion of the site transferred to the builder at Rs. 22.9 lakhs as against, the correct figure of Rs. 40.5 lakhs for which initiation of action under section 271(1)(c) of the Income-tax Act was directed. 5. Aggrieved by the said order of the assessing authority, the assessee pr....
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....eously and hence the conditions for acquiring a residential house within the time specified are complied with and, therefore, the assessee is eligible for deduction under section 54 in respect of all the apartments simultaneously acquired. Accordingly the Appellate Tribunal dismissed the appeal. Aggrieved by the same, the Revenue is before this court. 7. The learned counsel for the Revenue assailing the impugned orders passed by the appellate authority, contended that, under section 54, the word used is "a residential house". The letter "a" in the said word is to be given a meaning. The only meaning that can be given to the said letter is that the assessee would be entitled to the benefit of exemption from payment of capital gains....
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....is section, that is to say,- . . . ." 9. A reading of the aforesaid provision makes it very clear that the property sold is referred to as original asset in the section. That original asset is described as buildings or lands appurtenant thereto and being a residential house. Therefore, it is not mere "a residential house". The residential house may include buildings or lands appurtenant thereto. The stress is on the use to which the property is put to. Only when that asset was used as a residential house, which may consist of buildings or lands appurtenant thereto, the income derived from the sale of such a residential house is chargeable under the head "Income from house property." If the assessee has within a period of one year ....
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....inal asset also can be buildings or lands appurtenant thereto, which also should be "a residential house." Therefore the letter "a" in the context it is used should not be construed as meaning "singular." But, being an indefinite article, the said expression should be read in consonance with the other words "buildings and lands" and, there-fore, the singular "a residential house" also permits use of plural by virtue of section 13(2) of the General Clauses Act This is the view which is taken by this court in the aforesaid Anand Basappa's case in I. T. A. No. 113/2004, disposed of on September 20, 2008 ([2009] 309 ITR 329 (Karn)). 11. We, therefore, do not see any merit in the submission of the learned counsel for the Revenue.  ....