1998 (3) TMI 82

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....the Income-tax (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 1983, which took effect from April 2, 1983. The Income-tax Officer allowed the claim of the assessee on the same basis. The assessee, however, filed an additional ground before the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) and claimed that the amended rates contained in Appendix I to the Income-tax Rules should be applied even for the assessments pending after the date on which the amendment came into force. The Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) had not accepted this claim. He held that the benefit of the Fourth Amendment Rules should be granted to the assessment year 1984-85 and subsequent assessments. The assessee appealed to the Tribunal and the Tribunal, in turn, held that the modified ....

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....t (not being a ship)". III(i) provides the general rate applicable to machinery and plant (not being a ship), for which no special rate has been prescribed under item (ii) therein below and the rate so prescribed is 10 per cent. This was the position prior to the Income-tax (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 1983. Subsequent to the Income-tax (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 1983, coming into existence, which event happened on April 2, 1983, Appendix I, Part I (III)(i) had been amended in so far as it is relatable to rate changing it from 10 per cent. to 15 per cent. The Income-tax (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 1983, do not at all provide for retrospective operation of the rules and this aspect of the matter is of signal importance in deciding the tangle....

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....etting the enhanced rate of depreciation at 15 per cent. cannot at all, be countenanced, inasmuch as the amended rules came into force from April 2, 1983. The Income-tax (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 1983, if at all could be applicable to the assessment year 1984-85 relatable to the previous year, commencing from April 1, 1983, to March 31, 1984. The fact that the assessment of the assessee relatable to the assessment year 1981-82 came up for orders on June 30, 1984, is of no consequence. Worthwhile it is to refer to certain decisions of superior courts of jurisdiction to highlight this aspect of the matter : (i) In S. P. Jaiswal Estates Pvt. Ltd. v. CIT (No. 2) [1994] 209 ITR 307, what their Lordships of the Calcutta High Court said in the ....