TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (6) TMI 598
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....nterest income received on fixed deposits as income from other sources, as against the claim of the assessee that it is inextricably linked with setting up of the infrastructure for the project and therefore, is a capital receipt liable to be set off against the pre-operative expenses. 3. Facts of the case in brief are that the Assessing Officer noticed that during the year under consideration was the pre-commencement period of the assessee in its business operations and during the year, assessee received foreign remittances towards share capital. Out of the funds received, Rs. 11 crores was kept in fixed deposits with HSBC Bank and earned interest of Rs.29,16,878, which was set off against pre-operative expenses of Rs.29,92,158, and acc....
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.... capital in fixed deposits, held that the interest income generated from the fixed deposits had to be considered as income from other sources. 4. On appeal, the CIT(A), confirmed the roder of the Assessing Officer and dismissed the appeal of the assessee. 5 Aggrieved by the order of the CIT(A), assessee is in second appeal before us. 6. The learned Authorised Representative submitted that the assessee collected the share capital and there was delay in the commencement of the business on account of delay in the procuring the land, due to legal hassles. The funds were deposited in the bank in the meanwhile and in the circumstances, interest was received as inextricably linked with setting up of plant, and therefore, it is a business ....
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.... income could not be treated as business income. It was further held that the assessee was not entitled to deduction of the administrative expenses and exploration and mining expenses from out of its interest income. 10. Further, in its subsequent decision in the case of CIT V/s. Rassi Cement Ltd.(232 ITR 554), Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court held that the interest earned on surplus funds deposited in banks during the installation of a company prior to the commencement of the business is assessable as income from other sources. 11. As for the case-law relied upon by the assessee, the decision of the Apex Court in the case of Bokaro Steel Ltd. (supra), relied upon by the learned counsel for the assessee is not straight on the issue i....
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....decisions of the Supreme Court are binding on all courts, except, however, the Supreme Court itself which is free to review the same and depart from its earlier opinion if the situation so warrants. What is binding is, of course, the ratio of the decision and not every expression found therein. (b) The decisions of the High Court are binding on the subordinate courts and authorities or Tribunals under its superintendence throughout the territories in relation to which it exercises jurisdiction. It does not extend beyond its territorial jurisdiction. (c) The position in regard to the binding nature of the decisions of a High Court on different Benches of the same court may be summed up as follows : (i) A single judge of a High Court....
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.... effect. By no amount of stretching of the doctrine of stare decisis, can judgments of one High Court be given the status of a binding precedent so far as other High Courts or Tribunal within their territorial jurisdiction are concerned. Any such attempt will go counter to the very doctrine of stare decisis and also the various decisions of the Supreme Court which have interpreted the scope and ambit thereof. The fact that there is only one decision of any one High Court on a particular point or that a number of different High Courts have taken identical views in that regard is not at all relevant for that purpose. Whatever may be the conclusion, the decisions cannot have the force of binding precedent on other High Courts or on any subordi....