2025 (3) TMI 1874

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....me for AY 2018-19 on 03.12.2018 u/s. 139(4) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) declaring Nil income after claiming deduction u/s. 80P of the Act of Rs. 42,64,542/-. The Income Tax Officer, Ward-2(3), Kozhikode (hereinafter "the AO") completed the assessment u/s. 144 r.w.s. 143(3) r.w.s. 143(3A) and 143(3B) of the Act vide order dated 08.02.2021, disallowing the claim for deduction u/s. 80(P) of the Act, at a total income of Rs. 42,64,542/-. 3. Being aggrieved, an appeal was filed before the CIT(A), who vide the impugned order confirmed the action of the AO. 4. Being aggrieved, assessee is in appeal before this Tribunal. 5. When the appeal was called on, nobody appeared on behalf of the assessee despite due service of notice of h....

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....tion 148, and to be valid, had to be filed within the due date contemplated under those provisions. Under Section 80A(5), the claim for deduction under Section 80P could be made by an assessee in a return filed within the time prescribed for filing such returns under any of the above provisions. The amendment to Section 80AC with effect from 1.4.2018, however, mandated that for an assessee to get a deduction under Section 80P of the IT Act, he had to furnish a return of his income for such assessment year on or before the due date specified in Section 139(1) of the IT Act. In other words, after 1.4.2018, even if the assessee makes his claim for deduction under Section 80P in a return filed within time under Sections 139(4), 142(1) or Sectio....

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....s of a Division Bench of this Court in The Chirakkal Service Co-operative Bank Ltd. [supra]. The findings therein, that appear to suggest that a claim for deduction under Section 80P can be entertained even if it is made in a return filed beyond the time permitted under the IT Act, ignores the perspective that sees the requirement of the claim for deduction being made in a valid return as a pre-condition for obtaining the benefit of the statutory deduction. The said findings also fly in the face of the express statutory provisions that requires the claim to be made in a return filed by the assessee, by which term is meant a valid return under the Act, and therefore have necessarily to be seen as per incuriam. We also find that the subsequen....