Joginder Pall, A.M. - (1.) ALL these five appeals have been filed by the revenue against the consolidated order dated 17-3-1997, of the Commissioner (Appeals), Chandigarh, for the assessment years 1989-90 to 1993-94. Since the issue involved in all these appeals is common, these were heard together and are being disposed of by this consolidated order for the sake of convenience.
(2.) The only effective issue raised in these appeals is that Commissioner (Appeals) was not justified in deleting the interest charged under section 234B of the Income Tax Act in view of the fact that the said order ceased to exist when Chief Commissioner partially waived the interest and his order became final under the provisions of section 273A(5) of the Income Tax Act. The facts of the case are that the government had acquired the agricultural land owned by the assessee on 12-7-1984. The assessee was awarded compensation by the Land Acquisition Officer on 20-11-1985. However, the compensation awarded was challenged before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The Hon'ble High Court enhanced the compensation vide its order dated 15-4-1991. Both the parties approached the Supreme Court against the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court confirmed the judgment of Punjab and Haryana High Court vide its judgment dated 9-8-1991. Subsequently, the Land Acquisition Officer quantified the compensation and year-wise interest on 15-5-1992. As per the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the cases of Ramabai & Ors. v. CIT (1990) 181 ITR 400 (SC) and Krishna Rao v. CIT (1990) 181 ITR 408 (SC), the interest was assessable in the respective years on accrual basis. Therefore, the assessing officer initiated proceedings under section 148 in order to bring to tax the yearly interest and the assessments for all the assessment years were completed on 25-1-1996, including therein interest of Rs. 83,090 for each of the assessment years under reference. The assessing officer, inter alia, also charged interest under section 234B. Aggrieved, the assessee filed appeals against the orders of the assessing officer for charging interest under section 234B for all the assessment years under reference. Besides, the assessee also filed application before the Chief Commissioner on 1-2-1996, requesting for waiver of interest in view of the CBDT's Circular F.No. 400/234/95-IT(B), dated 23-5-1996. The Chief Commissioner, North West Region, Chandigarh, partially waived the interest charged under section 234B upto 30-4-1991, for the assessment years under reference.
(3.) IN the appeals filed before the Commissioner (Appeals), it was contended that assessee disputed the liability of charging of interest in view of the fact that on the dates on which advance tax was payable, no income had accrued to the assessee. It was only on 15-5-1992, when the interest was quantified and assessee received the enhanced compensation along with the interest that the assessee became liable to tax in respect of interest income. Therefore, by relying on the various judgments reported in 4 ITR 276, 207 ITR 133 (Raj), 198 TTR 66 (Raj), Smt. S. Mageshwari v. Asstt. CIT (1993) 201 ITR-472 (Kar), CIT v. Triple Crown Agencies (1993) 204 ITR 377 (Gau), S.M. Kabeer v. INcome Tax Officer (1995) 216 ITR 359 (Mad) and the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Central Provinces Manganese Ore Co. Ltd. v. CIT (1986) 160 ITR 961 (SC), the assessee contended that appeals before the Commissioner (Appeals) were admissible because the assessee denied its liability of interest under section 234B. By relying on the judgments of the various High Courts including the Supreme Court, the Commissioner (Appeals) admitted the appeals and held that no interest under section 234B was liable to be charged from the assessment years 1989-90 to 1992-93 because the dates on which advance tax was payable, no income had accrued to the assessee. As regards the assessment year 1993-94, the Commissioner (Appeals) held that interest along with the enhanced compensation was paid to the assessee on 15-5-1992. Thus, the assessee could have paid the advance tax for the assessment year 1993-94 on the due dates. He, therefore, upheld the assessing officer's order in charging interest under section 234B for the assessment year 1993-94. Revenue is aggrieved by the order of the Commissioner (Appeals). Hence, these appeals before us.;