AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (4) TMI 631
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....8-19. 2. The present appeal is delayed by 141 days. The Secretary of the assessee has filed an affidavit praying for condonation of delay. In the said affidavit sworn on 03/02/2023, the Secretary of the assessee has submitted as under:- "1. Our society being the assessee which is a co. op. housing society & the day to day operations of the same were managed by the designated manager who had the exclusive access to all the society emails & communications. Unfortunately during the tenure when the appellate order dated 20-07-2022 for ay 2018-19 was passed, the society manger was on a long leave & the email communications were left unattended. During that period also no hard copies of any orders from the department were received by the socie....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....rules of procedure are handmaid of justice. When substantial justice and technical considerations are pitted against each other, the cause of substantial justice deserves to be preferred. In the present case, the assessee did not stand to benefit by late filing of the appeal. In view of the above and having perused the affidavit, we are of the considered view that there exists sufficient cause for not filing the present appeal within the limitation period and therefore, we condone the delay in filing the appeal by the assessee and we proceed to decide the appeal on merits. 4. In this appeal, the assessee has raised the following grounds:- "1. The Ld. Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeal), NFAC, erred in upholding the action of Ld. Assessin....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....tion under section 80P(2)(d), and interest income of Rs.36,790 earned from investments with non co-operative bank was claimed as deduction under section 80P(2)(c)(ii) of the Act. Thus, in the computation of total income, the assessee claimed a total deduction of Rs.28,89,538 under section 80P of the Act. The Assessing Officer ("AO") vide order dated 23/03/2021 passed under section 143(3) read with sections 143(3A) and 143(3B) of the Act did not agree with the claim of the assessee and held that under section 80P(2)(d) of the Act only income by way of interest or dividend derived from the investment with any other co-operative society is allowable as deduction and the provision of the Act does not extend the deduction in respect of interest ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ons of section 80P(2)(d) of the Act, despite the fact that the assessee made specific submissions regarding its claim under section 80(2)(c)(ii) of the Act in respect of interest earned from non co-operative bank. Since there are no findings by any of the lower authorities in respect of assessee's claim of deduction under section 80P(2)(c)(ii) of the Act, we deem it appropriate to remand this issue to the file of AO for de novo adjudication only limited to this aspect. 8. As per the provisions of section 80P(1) of the Act, the income referred to in sub-section (2) to section 80P shall be allowed as a deduction to an assessee being a co-operative society. Further, section 80P(2)(d) of the Act, reads as under: "80P. Deduction in respect of....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... the District Central Co-operative Bank or the State Co-operative Bank. Accordingly, the assessee kept the deposits in co-operative banks and earned interest of Rs.28,52,748, which was claimed as a deduction under section 80P(2)(d) of the Act. The Revenue denied the deduction under section 80P(2)(d) of the Act on the basis that the interest income earned from co-operative bank is not covered under the aforesaid provisions and the said provision only grants deduction in respect of interest earned from co-operative society. In this regard, it is pertinent to note that all co-operative banks are co-operative societies but vice versa is not true. We find that the coordinate benches of the Tribunal have consistently taken a view in favour of the....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....P(2)(d) in respect of the interest income on their investments parked with a co-operative bank. We have given a thoughtful consideration to the issue before us and are of the considered view that as long as it is proved that the interest income is being derived by a co-operative society from its investments made with any other co-operative society, the claim of deduction under the aforesaid statutory provision, viz. Sec. 80P(2)(d) would be duly available. We may herein observe that the term 'co-operative society' had been defined under Sec. 2(19) of the Act, as under:- '(19) "Co-operative society" means a cooperative society registered under the Co-operative Societies Act, 1912 (2 of 1912), or under any other law for the time ....