2022 (9) TMI 968

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....dated 14/5/2019. The Arguments 2. Sh. Bardia, the ld. Counsel for the assessee, would, at the outset, submit that the issue arising in the instant appeal, i.e., the maintainability in law of the adjustment to the returned income in respect of employee's contributions to the employee welfare funds deposited by the assessee-employer beyond the due date specified thereunder, though by the due date of filing the return of income u/s. 139(1), disallowed by the Revenue invoking s. 36(1)(va) per an Intimation u/s. 143(1), is covered by a series of decisions by this Tribunal, including by the Jabalpur Bench, following it's decision in Nikhil Mohine v. Dy. CIT (in ITA Nos. 37 & 38/Jab/2021, dated 18/11/2021). Sh. Mehrotra, the ld. Sr. DR, would, o....

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....limited scope of an adjustment u/s. 143(1)(a), the same could not be decided on merits. The decisions by the Hon'ble High Courts holding the employee's contribution as being covered by s. 43B(b), implying, in context, u/s. 37(1) r/w s. 43B(b), which were aplenty (see pg. 9 of the impugned order), it opined, could be validated only by disregarding the clear language of the relevant provisions, upheld constitutionally and not read down. The said decisions must nevertheless be respected, and no adjustment contrary thereto could be made u/s. 143(1); there being no decision by the Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court in the matter. The only manner, therefore, available for the Revenue to effect an adjustment u/s. 143(1)/154, is where the Explan....

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....dia vs. S. Muthyam Reddy [1999] 240 ITR 341 (SC), wherein the words 'shall not include and shall be deemed never to have included' in the Explanation to s. 2(1A) by the Finance Act, 1989 was read by the Hon'ble Apex Court to be declaratory amendment having a retrospective effect, and even as the said amendment was effected during the pendency of the appeal against the assessment. Further still, noticing the settled legal position qua the test for determining retrospectivity, i.e., if the provision could be construed, without the aid of the subsequent amendment thereto, to take within its ambit the said amendment, the issue was also examined by the Tribunal on merits, i.e., for the said limited purpose, to find that the view canvassed by....

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....e insertion of s. 36(1)(va) on the statute, the object of the said provision. It is this view, which in fact, as also noticed by the Tribunal, represented the uniform view across all the Hon'ble Courts prior to the deletion of the second proviso to s. 43B by Finance Act, 2003, w.e.f. 01/4/2004, which the Explanations to ss. 36(1)(va) and 43B by Finance Act, 2021 seek to statutorily clarify in view of the conflict of judicial opinion, passing thus the test of retrospectivity, even as unequivocally expressed per the unambiguous language thereof. The Explanations under reference were therefore clarificatory and, thus, retrospective. 3.2 The said Explanations, the Tribunal continued, had however been, as clear from a reference to the Notes on ....

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....), is not on the point and, therefore, of no assistance to the Revenue. Per the same, the Hon'ble High Court has opined on the prospective nature of the omission of the second proviso to s. 43B by Finance Act, 2003, w.e.f. 01/4/2004, so that the same would not, in it's view, impact the disallowance u/s. 43B(b) for the years under reference before it, i.e., AY 1992-93, 1994-95 & 1995-96. The issue considered by the Hon'ble Court is, thus, the same as by the Hon'ble Apex Court in CIT v. Alom Extrusions Ltd. [2009] 319 ITR 306 (SC), though deciding it to the contrary. As regards the aspect of the retrospective nature of the Explanations under reference, we again find no difference in the view expressed therein with that by the Tribunal in Nikh....