Gain on sale of Shares held for 16 years as investment cannot be treated as business income

Heard Sri Shubham Agrawal, learned counsel for the appellants and Sri Rupesh Jain, learned counsel for the respondent. The appeal by the Revenue is directed against the order of the Income Tax Tribunal dated 29.10.2010 in respect of the assessment year 2005-  06. The bone of contention in this appeal is whether the income derived from the sale of equity shares would be business income or a Long Term Capital Gain. The facts as stated in the order of the Tribunal reveal that the equity shares were held by the assessee company since 1988- 89 as a long term investment ie. for a period of ...