TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (10) TMI 1440
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....d U/s.2(19) of the Income Tax Act 1961. 4. Therefore the appellant Society is evidently a primary Co-operative, Agricultural & Rural Development Bank as defined U/s.80(P)(4) of The Income Tax Act, providing credit facilities to its members for Agricultural And allied Rural Development activities and eligible for deductions provided in Section 80P of the Act. 5. The Appellant do not accept any deposits and the Loans are provided to the members out of the funds obtained from the Apex Co-operative Bank, namely the Kerala State Co-operative Agricultural & Rural Development Bank Ltd., Trivandrum. 6. The Appellant Society is eligible for deduction provided U/s. 80(P)(2)(a)(i) &(d) of the Income Tax Act, being a primary Co-operative Agricultural And Rural Development Bank described u/s.80(P) (4) (a) (b), providing credit facility to its members for Agricultural and Allied Rural Development Activities. 7. The Assessing Officer's interpretation of Section 80(P)(4)(b) relating to the expression therein, "A Society having its area of operation confined TO "A" TALUK and the principle object of which is to provide for long term credit for Agricultural And Rural Development activ....
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....The principal object of Appellant Society is to provide for long term credits for Agricultural and Rural Development activities to its members. 4. The area of operation of the Appellant is confined to the rural taluks of Meenachil and Kanjirappally. 5. The Assessing Officer's interpretation of Section 80(P)(4) relating to the expression therein, "A Society having its area of operation confined to a Taluk even if the principle object of which is to provide for long term credit for Agricultural and Rural Development activities" is disputed by the appellant as under:- The Assessing Officer has totally misunderstood the expression "CONFINED TO "A" TALUK" in Section 80(P)(4)(b) which does not indicate a singular number. 6. The Assessing Officer has denied the exemption to the Appellant relaying on the following cases mentioned in Para 15 and 16 of the Assessment Order which are totally out of context. (a) In Para 15 the Assessing Officer referred to the Hon'ble Appellate Tribunal Jaipur Bench in ITA No.764/JP/20ll (Kekri Sahakari Bhumi Vikas Bank Ltd. case dated 23/03/2012), in fact the Hon'ble Tribunal subsequently during the second round of litigation allowe....
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....rative bank, section 80P (4) of the Act would not apply to it. In view of such clarification, we cannot entertain the Revenues contention that section 80P (4) would exclude not only the Co-operative banks other than those fulfilling the description contained therein but also credit societies, which are not Co-operative banks. In the present case, respondent assessee is admittedly not a credit Co-operative bank but a credit co-operative society. Exclusion clause of subsection (4) of section 80P, therefore would not apply. In the result thereof we hereby allow the appeal with the direction to the AO to give all the benefits to the assessee under 80P of the Act. (Para 3, Page 16) 10. ITA 41/COCH/2015 dated 24/05/2017 Page 8 Para 6.4 of Hon'ble Tribunal Cochin Bench In the case of Jugal Kishore Saraf Vs. Raw Cotton Co. Ltd. in AIR 1955 SC 376 at page 381 Justice S.R Das held thus: "The cardinal rule of construction of statues is to read the statues literally, that is, by giving to the words their ordinary, natural and grammatical meaning. If however, such a reading leads to absurdity and the words are susceptible of another meaning, the court may adopt the same. But if ....
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....reads as follows:- "8. We have heard the rival submissions and perused the material on record. We find that an identical issue has been considered by the Tribunal in assessee's own case for the immediately assessment year 2010-2011 (ITA No.41/Coch/ 2015 - order dated 24.05.2017), wherein the Tribunal held that the assessee was not entitled to the benefit of deduction u/s 80P(2) of the I.T.Act. The relevant finding of the Tribunal reads as follows:- "6. We have heard the rival contentions and perused the material on record. The Assessing Officer had denied 80P deduction for the following two reasons, namely, i) Assessee's area of operation is not confined to a taluk. ii) Agricultural credit provided by the assessee-bank is very less compared to the normal banking activities. 6.1 The CIT(A) confirmed the disallowance of deduction u/s. 80P(2) made by the Assessing Officer on both counts. However, the CIT(A) with regard to the computation/calculation of the percentage of agricultural credit provided by the assessee, restored the issue to the file of the Assessing Officer in para 12 of the impugned order. 6.2 Therefore, the solitary issue for our consideration is whether 80....