2017 (9) TMI 1815
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....earned Senior Counsel appearing for the appellant and Mr. B.Narasimha Sarma, learned Senior Standing Counsel for the respondents/ Department. 3. The appellant is a Cooperative Society, established way back in the year 1963. Originally, the appellant was registered as The Eluru Cooperative House Mortgage Bank Limited. But the Reserve Bank of India as well as the Cooperative Department of the State refused to accord permission to the appellant to carry on the business of banking under the said name. Therefore, the word "Bank" was deleted from the name of the appellant, with effect from 19-02-2009. In other words, the appellant claimed that it is not a bank within the meaning of Section 80P(4) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. 4. ....
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.... 2009-10 was dated 09-10-2012. Therefore, naturally it can be presumed that the Commissioner (Appeals) who dealt with the appeals in relation to the Assessment Years 2007-08 and 2009-10, had the benefit of the order of the CIT (Appeals) in relation to the Assessment Year 2008-09. 7. The assessee filed an appeal as against the order of the CIT (Appeals) dated 25-01-2012. The Department filed two appeals as against the order of the CIT (Appeals) dated 09-01-2012. There were also cross-objections in relation to certain other aspects, about which we are not concerned in the present batch of appeals. 8. The three appeals, one filed by the assessee in ITTA No.137 of 2012 in relation to the Assessment Year 2008-09 and t....
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....ame that had a word "Bank" which came to be deleted only on 19-02-2009; (ii) that in the original certificate of incorporation issued on 19-6-1963, the assessee's name included the word "Bank"; (iii) that assessee is a Mutual Benefit Society registered under Section 10 of the Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act, 1932 on the basis of limited liabilities, and the same was reflected in the Bye-laws of the Society; and (iv) that the profits and gains of any business of banking including the provision of credit facilities, carried on by a cooperative society with its members, shall be treated as income as per the provisions of Section 2(24)(viia). 11. The Assessing Officer also drew inspiration from the Bye-laws....
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.... directed to drop the word "Bank" from its name by a mandate of law and that therefore the denial of the benefit was not proper. 15. When all the three appeals, two passed in favour of the assessee and one passed in favour of the Revenue became the subject matter of second appeal before the Tribunal, the Tribunal first took up the Assessment Year 2008-09 for consideration. 16. In paragraphs-8 to 11 of its common order, the Tribunal observed that the deletion of the word "Bank" from the name of the appellant in the year 2009; and the objects of the society which included acceptance of deposits from non-members are all pointers to the effect that they were carrying on banking business. In other words, on the ....
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....ssing Officer followed, to hold that the appellant was dealing with the non-members. 18. The entitlement of an assessee to the benefit of deduction under Section 80P(2), does not depend upon either the name of the assessee or the objects for which the assessee was established. The entitlement to deduction under the said provision would depend upon the actual carrying on of the business activity viz., banking. The fact that all cooperative banks would necessarily be cooperative societies, cannot lead to the presumption that all cooperative societies are also cooperative banks. There are different types of cooperative societies, many of whom may not be transacting any banking business. Let us take for instance an agricultural so....