TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (10) TMI 54
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....cts of the case are that the assessee is an individual and an employee of the BSNL who was opted to retire under the BSNL Voluntary Retirement Scheme, 2019. The Scheme was formulated for restructuring as well as to reduce the cost faced in view of the losses suffered by BSNL. The assessee was aged about 50 years and not conversant with the new technological systems being adopted by BSNL and therefore the organization had formulated the VRS, 2019. Even though the Scheme was named as Voluntary Retirement Scheme, in sum and substance, it is a retrenchment scheme designed to compulsorily reduce the workforce. 3. Under the said scheme, the employee was entitled to receive ex-gratia / compensation and the disbursement was made in four equal in....
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....lay in filing the appeal and thereafter dismissed the appeal on merits. 5. The Ld.CIT(A) had dismissed the appeal on the ground that section 10(10B) grants exemption in respect of retrenchment compensation received under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 whereas section 10(10C) deals with the amounts received under a voluntary retirement scheme and therefore held that the assessee is not entitled for exemption u/s. 10(10B) of the Act. The Ld.CIT(A) further held that the assessee had originally claimed exemption u/s. 10(10C) of the Act and therefore relying on the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court reported in 284 ITR 323 in the case of Goetze (India) Ltd. had held that the claim not made in the original return or in the revised return....
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....The Ld.AR further submitted that the assessee had claimed the deduction under a wrong provision since the employer had deducted the TDS and if the said claim is not in order, in order to render justice, the AO can modify the said claim and grant the deduction under the correct provision and therefore prayed to consider the said facts and allow the appeal filed by the assessee. The Ld.AR submitted that even the AO is not authorized to grant the deduction other than the one claimed in the return of income and also not filed a revised return, the appellate authorities i.e. this Tribunal is having enormous powers to entertain a plea and if it is in order, grant the benefit to the assessee. The Ld.AR submitted that the compensation received by t....
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.... for the first time before him. 12. We have considered the facts and also the order of the Chandigarh Bench of this Tribunal in which the Tribunal had granted the deduction u/s. 10(10B) of the Act on the retrenchment compensation received by the BSNL employees pursuant to the Voluntary Retirement Scheme, 2019. Before us, it was demonstrated that the issue has been decided by the several benches of this Tribunal and therefore the benefits could not be denied to the same set of employee. We have also considered the various orders pronounced by the several Tribunals in which the Tribunals had condoned the similar delays in filing the appeals and also granted exemption u/s. 10(10B) of the Act on the compensation received on retrenchment. The....
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....e the appeal is liable to be dismissed. It is not the case of the revenue that the assessee is not entitled for such deduction but on technical grounds, the revenue had denied the deductions. Further, the assessee had mistakenly claimed the deduction in the original return of income under the wrong provision and therefore there is no question of saying that the assessee cannot raise the issue for the first time before the Ld.CIT(A). Further, the department had accepted that the benefit should be granted in respect of the employees of BSNL. Therefore, the order of the Ld.CIT(A) is liable to be interfered. 15. Further, the Ld.CIT(A) had also relied on the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court reported in 284 ITR 323 in the case of Goetze (....