Raniwala Jewelers Pvt. Ltd. Vs Asstt. /DCIT (ITAT Jaipur)
The ITAT Jaipur considered whether deduction under Section 80JJAA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 could be denied solely on the ground that Form No. 10DA, though uploaded before the due date of filing the return, was digitally verified after the due date. The assessee had filed its return claiming deduction under Section 80JJAA for additional employee cost. Form No. 10DA, prescribed under Rule 19AB, was uploaded before the due date but digitally verified later. The Central Processing Centre disallowed the deduction under Section 143(1) for non-furnishing of the report, and the disallowance was upheld by the appellate authority.
The Tribunal observed that the only dispute was whether delayed verification of Form No. 10DA, despite timely upload, could justify denial of the deduction on procedural grounds. It distinguished the Supreme Court decisions in Wipro Ltd. and Dilip Kumar & Company, holding that those cases dealt with exemption provisions, revised returns, exemption notifications, and mandatory statutory conditions, whereas the present case involved a deduction under Chapter VI-A and a procedural requirement without any revised return or tax planning.
The Tribunal relied on the Supreme Court decision in G.M. Knitting Industries (P.) Ltd., wherein filing of the prescribed form during assessment proceedings was held to constitute sufficient compliance, and on the Gujarat High Court decision in Association of Indian Panelboard Manufacturer, which held that although furnishing the audit report is mandatory, the stage or mode of filing is procedural if the report is available with the Assessing Officer before completion of assessment. The Tribunal also referred to the principle laid down in Vegetable Products Ltd. that where two reasonable interpretations of a taxing provision are possible, the interpretation favourable to the assessee should be adopted.
