2020 (5) TMI 359 - AT - Income Tax

Disallowance u/s 14A - no tax exempt income - HELD THAT:- Undisputed facts of this case that there was no tax exempt income in the relevant previous year, we hold that no disallowance under section 14A could have been made, on the facts of this case and in the year before us. We, therefore, uphold the plea of the assessee and delete the disallowance.

Once we uphold the plea of the assessee that no disallowance under section 14A could have been made on the facts of this case, grievances of the Assessing Officer, against learned CIT(A)’s partially deleting the disallowance under section 14A, become infructuous.

Pronouncement of orders not within 90 days - pedantic view - Covid-19 epidemic - HELD THAT:- We are of the considered view that rather than taking a pedantic view of the rule requiring pronouncement of orders within 90 days, disregarding the important fact that the entire country was in lockdown, we should compute the period of 90 days by excluding at least the period during which the lockdown was in force.

Even without the words “ordinarily”, in the light of the above analysis of the legal position, the period during which lockout was in force is to excluded for the purpose of time limits set out in rule 34(5) of the Appellate Tribunal Rules, 1963. Viewed thus, the exception, to 90-day time-limit for pronouncement of orders, inherent in rule 34(5)(c), with respect to the pronouncement of orders within ninety days, clearly comes into play in the present case. Of course, there is no, and there cannot be any, bar on the discretion of the benches to refix the matters for clarifications because of considerable time lag between the point of time when the hearing is concluded and the point of time when the order thereon is being finalized, but then, in our considered view, no such exercise was required to be carried out on the facts of this case.