Dhanesh Kumar Jain Vs ACIT (ITAT Delhi)
In this case Assessee by mistake not claimed deduction u/s. 57(iv) of Income Tax Act, 1961 i.e. @ 50% of interest on compensation that was received by Assessee on acquisition of his agricultural land by Land Collector. ITAT held that mistake, was in the nature of a mistake rectifiable within the meaning of section 154 of the Act.
A.O remains under a statutory obligation to deduce the ‘true income’ of an assessee, therefore, the entitlement of the assessee before us towards deduction u/s 57(iv), which is inextricably interwoven or in fact intertwined with the corresponding interest income which had duly been disclosed by him in his return of income, could not have been declined by the A.O on the basis of hyper technical reasons. Our aforesaid view is fortified by the Judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Anchor Pressings (P) Ltd. Vs. CIT (1986) 161 ITR 159 (SC), wherein the Hon’ble Apex Court, had observed, that where an assessee who was entitled to claim a deduction had omitted to raise such claim in his return of income or in the course of the assessment proceedings, then, he was entitled to make such claim by moving an application u/s. 154 of the Act.
As in the case of the assessee before us, the complete details that were required to allow his claim for deduction u/s 57(iv) of the Act i.e disclosure of interest on compensation was clearly discernible from his return of income and, no new facts were required to be looked into, therefore, in our considered view, there was no justifiable reason for the A.O to have rejected the assessee’s application u/s 154 of the Act.
In the backdrop of our aforesaid observations, we are unable to persuade ourselves to subscribe to the view taken by the lower authorities that the omission on the part of the assessee to claim deduction u/s. 57(iv) in his return of income was not in the nature of a mistake rectifiable under Sec. 154 of the Act.
