High Court has observed as follows:-
(i) We therefore have no hesitation in holding that in the instant case the assessee having got 15 flats along with his two sons will not disentitle him from getting the benefit under Section 54-F of the IT Act only on the ground that all the 15 flats are not in the same Block, particularly in the light of the admitted factual position that all the 15 flats are located at the same address namely, ‘Rain Forest’ No.57, New No.36, Taylor’s Road, Rem Street, Kilpauk, Chennai 600 010.
(ii) As a sequitur, we are unable to persuade ourselves that the 15 flats, even if they are located in different blocks would not disentitle the assessee from getting the benefit of Section 54-F of IT Act.
(iii) We have no hesitation in holding that the order of ITAT which has been called in question before us is correct, there is no infirmity in the said order, does not call for any interference and we are of the view that the said order deserves to be confirmed.
(iv) We also noticed that in all the judgements, irrespective of whether it is under Section 54 or 54-F of IT Act, which we have discussed supra, the judgements have proceeded only on the basis that the flats [being more than one flat] are in the same location/address. Therefore, once it is in the same location/address, the question of whether it is in the same block or in different blocks does not arise for consideration. To our mind, as long as all the flats are in the same address/location even if they are located in separate blocks or towers it does not alter the position. In the instant case, after all, all the flats are a product of one development agreement of the same piece of land being said land. Therefore, we make it abundantly clear that even if flats/apartments are in different blocks and different towers as long as they are in same address/location it does not disentitle the assessee from getting the benefit of Section 54-F of IT Act.
(v) Therefore, the sole and sheet anchor submission of counsel for Revenue that the 15 flats in the instant case are located in the different blocks does not impress us. We are unable to persuade ourselves that this will disentitle the assessee from getting the benefit of Section 54-F as all the flats are in the same location/address and all flats are by products of one development agreement with the same builder.
(vi) The logic behind our view is that the assessee, irrespective of whether it is one flat or many flats, gets proportionate undivided share in land only for the same piece of land. Therefore, assessee does not buy more than one property in that sense of the matter. Flats, apartments are completely based on co-ownership.
(vii) Owing to all that have been stated supra, we conclude that the assessee is entitled to the benefit of Section 54-F of IT Act.
Comments are closed.