TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (10) TMI 1006
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.... part thereof' appearing in Section 201(1A)- does it mean a calendar month or part thereof, or does it mean a 'period of one month' or part thereof. 3. The background in which this controversy arises is like this. Hon'ble Supreme Court had, vide judgment dated 7th November 2012 in this case, had directed "the assessee can't be held as an assessee in default, in view of the directions of the High Court, for the period from 20.02.1996 to 15.3.2010 and hence was liable to interest only with effect from 16th November 2010". Accordingly, the interest under section 201(1A) was required to be computed for a period of 16th November 2010 to 14th December 2012. When the interest was, on this basis, required to be recomputed, the Assessing Officer co....
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....month or part of a month on the amount of such tax from the date on which such tax was deducted to the date on which such tax is actually paid, and such interest shall be paid before furnishing the statement in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 200: Provided that in case any person, including the principal officer of a company fails to deduct the whole or any part of the tax in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter on the sum paid to a resident or on the sum credited to the account of a resident but is not deemed to be an assessee in default under the first proviso to sub-section (1), the interest under clause (i) shall be payable from the date on which such tax was deductible to the date of furnishing of....
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....s. Clearly, therefore, approach followed by the authorities below does not merit my approval 7. There is no dispute that the expression 'month' is not defined for the purpose of Section 201 (1A) nor there is any direct judicial authority in the context of Section 201. Section 3(35) of the General Clauses Act defines "month" as, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or the context, "a month reckoned according to the British calendar". The expression 'reckoned', in plain English, refers to 'count, compute or calculate". In substance thus, the mandate of Section 3(35) is to count, compute or calculate according to, or as per, the British calendar. It is also important to note that even this definition is not in absolute terms inas....
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....time between 16th November 2010 to 14th December 2012 is less than 25 months, and, accordingly, interest under section 201(1A) could not have been levied for a period of more than 25 months. 8. During the course of arguments before me, the connotations of 'calendar month' were argued at length but these discussions proceeded on the fallacious assumption that the expression 'month', appearing in Section 201(1A), is either required to be interpreted as a calendar month or a period of thirty days. As a matter of fact, as evident from the discussions above, the expression 'month' refers to "a month reckoned according to the British calendar". "A month as per the British calendar" and "a month reckoned (emphasis supplied by me) as per British c....