TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2002 (3) TMI 13
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....tric control panel. The Assessing Officer was of the view that the expenditure incurred in replacement of electric control panel cannot be considered allowable deduction as current repairs under section 31(i) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. He was of the view that the same is not a current expenditure but was capital expenditure. The matter was taken up in appeal which was disposed of revising the same and holding it amounted to current repairs coming within the ambit of section 31(i) of the Income-tax Act. The appeal filed by the Revenue was also rejected by the Tribunal confirming the order. Aggrieved the Department has come up in appeal under section 260A of the Income-tax Act raising the following questions of law: "1. Whether, on the f....
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.... may be "current repairs". The expression "repair" in ordinary connotation means a restoration by renewal, or replacement of subsidiary parts of a whole and it is also understood that it should be allowed to make good the effect of the equipment. When we say to make good the effect of the equipment, it should be understood to mean that with the repair the defective condition of the equipment is cleared and the equipment is restored to the position to be used as it was a new one. If the equipment as a whole is to be replaced, it would mean that it is not repaired and it may be a case of replacement. The earlier equipment that was electric control panel was one which was damaged and which was treated as an equipment that cannot be set right. ....
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....s renewal; renewal of a part; of a subordinate part. A skylight leaks; repair is effected by hacking out the putties, putting in new ones, and renewing the paint. A roof falls out of repair; the necessary work is to replace the decayed timbers by sound wood; to substitute sound tiles or slates for those which are cracked, broken or missing; to make good the flashings, and the like. Repair is restoration by renewal or replacement of subsidiary parts of a whole. Renewal, as distinguished from repair, is reconstruction of the entirety, meaning by the entirety not necessarily the whole but substantially the whole subject-matter under discussion." Similar is the view expressed by the decision of the Allahabad Court in Girdhari Dass and Son....
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.... in substance to current repairs to the existing machinery." This finding of fact by the Tribunal was for the reason that the expenditure incurred on current repair would come within section 10(2)(v) though not under section 10(2)(vib) of the 1922 Act, the predecessor enactment. Even after the change, the older equipment remained the same except that one of its integral parts was changed. It was only a repair. In this case the position is different. Likewise he wanted to rely on a decision in CIT v. Noroth Oil Mill Co. Ltd. [1983] 140 ITR 173 (Ker) as also CIT v. Chowgule and Co. Pvt. Ltd. [1995] 214 ITR 523 (Bom). We are afraid that neither decision has any application to the facts of the present case, even though CIT v. Chowgule and Co....
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....atter may be adjudicated in that manner. Learned counsel, Mr. P.K. Ravindranatha Menon, appearing for the Revenue, submits that no separate appeal is filed by the assessee claiming this relief. The question of considering the present claim that it would be a revenue expenditure cannot be adjudicated. We are of the view that there is no prohibition in the statute preventing the examination of the said contention as to whether the present claim be treated as revenue expenditure. Sub-section (7) of section 260A reads as follows: "Save as otherwise provided in this Act, the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), relating to appeals to the High Court shall, as far as may be, apply in the case of appeals under this sectio....