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2019 (6) TMI 880 - HC - Income TaxDeduction u/s. 80IB - denial of claim as composite development of housing project under six different blocks - as per revenue as both the projects were put up on the same parcel of land, the same would be one composite project and therefore the assessee would not be entitled to claim the deduction under Section 80IB(10) - HELD THAT:- The legislature has nowhere provided the definition of a housing project either in the section or anywhere in the IT Act. Is it open for the Revenue to consider all the housing activities undertaken by the assessee as one project or different projects ? The Concise Oxford Dictionary (9th Edition) defines a 'project' as "a plan, a scheme, a planned undertaking, a usually long-term task undertaken by a student to be submitted for assessment. We are not impressed by the submission canvassed on behalf of the Revenue that as both the projects were put up on the same parcel of land, the same would be one composite project and therefore the assessee would not be entitled to claim the deduction u/s 80IB(10). This aspect has been well dealt with by both i.e. the CIT (Appeals) as well as the Appellate Tribunal. It is not open to the Revenue to conclude the next project as part of the earlier housing project just to deny the statutory relief which the assessee is entitled to in respect of the eligible housing project. In that way the legislative intention to give a relief to the assessee who are undertaking the low housing projects will get defeated. The assessee has segregated the same and in no way mixed in these projects either in the design or in the structural manipulation or in the provision of amenities and the assessee has not claimed any relief in respect of project which admittedly does not admit the test laid down under Section 80- IB(10) of the Act. In our view, combining these two projects into one will lead to a result which manifestly will be unjust and absurd and defeat the very provisions of the deduction sections. Unless there is a clear intention of the legislature the Revenue cannot be permitted to do so. After all the assessee have obtained different commencement certificates and started on different periods of time. They are separate by time, space and statutory approvals and even in designs, maintenance of separate books of account. The Revenue, in our view, is not right in treating both the projects as one and integrated without the facts warranting for such conclusion. - Decided in favour of assessee.
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