TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (3) TMI 368
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....Notice No.ITBA/AST/S/156/2022-23/1048120866(1) dated 20.12.2022 by the first respondent and to quash the same. 2.Heard Mr.D.Shanmugaraja Sethupathi, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr.N.Dilipkumar, learned Standing Counsel for the respondents. 3.Mr.D.Shanmugaraja Sethupathi, learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner is a Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society with a primary object to provide assistance to the members/farmers for development of agricultural activities and all other incidental and ancillary activities. In the course of its business, the petitioner has also engaged itself in banking business, besides cooperative activities. The members of the society are also maintaining savings bank....
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....ile so, the assessment order dated 20.12.2022 was issued, disallowing the exemptions claimed for the interest received from the Virudhunagar District Central Cooperative Bank and had issued a demand notice under Section 156 of the Act calling upon the petitioner society to pay a sum of Rs.37,69,417/-. 6.The learned counsel for the petitioner would contend that no personal hearing was issued to the petitioner and therefore, the assessment order impugned in this writ petition is in violation of principles of natural justice and therefore prayed to set aside the same and also the consequential demand pursuant to such order. He would further submit that the petitioner society is the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society and does not ....
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....to appear before their respective Assessing Officers on a fixed date and till such time, an interim stay of the recovery of demand relating to the issue was made. He would further submit that the deposits made by the petitioner in the aforesaid Bank are all statutory, which has to be complied with by the petitioner and hence, the interest on such statutory reserve deposits will have to be exempted. He would further submit that the reliance placed upon by the Assigning Officer in the case of Totgars, Co-operative Sale Society Limited Vs. Income-tax Officer, Karnataka reported in (2010) 188 Taxman 282 (SC) would not be applicable to the facts of the case. 9.He would submit that the society therein had claimed an exemption under Section 80P o....
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....ed by way of an amendment in the year 2020 with effect from 01.11.2020. When such an amendment has been made and the scheme under such provision has been implemented, it is not for the petitioner to claim that the petitioner is not having been technical knowhow. He would submit that in the present case on hand, a notice was issued to the petitioner invoking the scheme under 142B of the Act, for which the petitioner had also given a detailed explanation along with all documents and also for the further notice, it had submitted its reply and now, it cannot take a stand that it is not technically feasible for the petitioner to comply with the faceless interface provided by Section 142B of the Act. 12.He would further submit that Section 80P o....
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....claim of the petitioner is that the Virudhunagar District Central Cooperative Bank is a Cooperative society and not a scheduled bank and therefore, the judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court in Totgars, Co-operative Sale Society Limited Vs. Incometax Officer, Karnataka reported in (2010) 188 Taxman 282 (SC) will not be applicable to the facts of the case. I have analyzed the said judgment also. 15.The issue therein was that the Co-operative society claiming an exemption of interest that it had received from the scheduled bank would be exempted under Section 80P(2)(a)(i) of the Act. The judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court could not be applied to this case, as the exemption now claimed by the petitioner is under Section 80P(2)(d) of the A....
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....view, deserves no consideration. 17.The reliance placed by the learned counsel for the petitioner upon the judgment of this Court in W.P.(MD) No.15046 of 2022 (Muhavoor Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society Limited, Virudhunagar District Vs. The Additional/Joint/Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi and other) dated 18.07.2022, in my view, would not be of any assistance to the petitioner. In that case, the Court had held that the order of final assessment had been passed within three days of the draft assessment and that the petitioner had been given little or no time. 18.In this case, the learned Standing Counsel for the respondents had invited my attention to the order of assessment, wherein in paragraph No.2, the detail....