Bhagabati Prosad Banerjee, J. - (1.) This is an appeal against the judgment and order dated January 14, 1994 (Central Concrete and Allied Products Ltd, v. Deputy CIT [1994] 210 ITR 506), passed by the learned trial judge making the rule absolute with a direction upon the appellants to pay the simple interest at the rate of 15 per cent, per annum from the date of deposit of the tax on behalf of the assessee-petitioner by way of "tax deducted at source" by the person responsible for depositing such tax.
(2.) The facts of this case in short are that the writ petitioner/opposite party is a private limited company under the Companies Act which was converted into a public limited company by shares. The said company carries on a business in civil engineering and construction work. The method of accounting of the said company is mercantile and the said company is also a regular income-tax assessee under the Income-tax Act, 1961. The assessment year involved is 1988-89 corresponding to the accounting year ending on September 30, 1987.
(3.) The respondent/writ petitioner company used to compute the income on "completed contract method" basis. The said method of computation of income was followed up to the assessment years 1987-88. The method of accounting followed by the said company had been accepted by the Income-tax Department up to the assessment year 1981-82. The Income-tax Department on and from the assessment years 1982-83 to 1987-88 started rejecting the said method of computation of income on "completed contract method" basis.;