TMI Blog2017 (8) TMI 752X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd rent - Held that:- The Court finds that the decisions of the ITAT, and even the decision of this Court for AY 2007-08, did not specifically deal with the issue of ground rent. They appear to have treated both the maintenance charges and ground rent alike whereas the decisions of the ITAT in favour of the Assessee, even for the earlier AYs, were specific to the issue of maintenance charges and not ground rent. Consequently, the impugned orders of the ITAT, the CIT (A) as well as the AO on the issue of ground rent for this AY 2008-09 is hereby set aside and the said issue is remanded to the file of the AO for re-determination in accordance with law after examining the accounts of the Assessee and any further evidence that may be led on thi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hich first heard the appeal. While Mr. Mehrotra (Accountant Member) held it to be not part of the income of the Assessee, Mr. Bedi (Judicial Member) held to the contrary. A reference was then made to the Third Member (Mr. D. Manmohan) who by his opinion dated 12th September 2014 concurred with the Judicial Member holding that interest on income tax refund has to be treated as income from other sources. After the Third Member gave his opinion, the appeal was listed before the two member bench of the ITAT which passed the final order dated 19th December 2014 by which it partly allowed the Revenue s appeal. Thus, the appeal was finally disposed of on that date. 4. As far as the issue which arises in the present appeal concerning the ground ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Raghvendra Singh, learned Senior Standing Counsel for the Revenue, points out that the entire bunch of orders of the ITAT was not received by the Revenue earlier than 30th January 2015. It was only on 19th December 2014 that the final order in the appeal was passed and, along with the said order, the order dated 11th February 2014 as well as the unsigned order of the Bench of the ITAT deciding the issue raised in the present appeal was received. He points out that since the starting date for the purposes of limitation is 30th January, 2015, the appeal filed in this Court on 30th May 2015 is within time. 7. There is no dispute that the Department received the impugned final order dated 11th February 2014 of the ITAT deciding the issue th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cerns the treatment of the ground rent and maintenance charges collected by the Assessee from the allottees in the low cost housing scheme. 12. It appears that the Assessing Officer ( AO ) made an entry in the order sheet in the assessment proceedings, on 23rd December 2010, calling upon the Assessee to explain why the ground rent and maintenance charges should not be added back to its income. The Authorized Representative ( AR ) of the Assessee, by a letter dated 30th November 2010, submitted as under: The observation pertains to low cost housing scheme. The ground rent is not a part of the Income of the Corporation. However the maintenance charges received will be shown as income of the Corporation during the current financial yea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ding 1991-92, 1992-93, 2003-04 and 2005-06 wherein, throughout, the ITAT has decided the issue of maintenance charges in favour of the Assessee and against the Revenue. 17. Mr Raghvendra Singh, learned counsel for the Revenue, on the other hand pointed out that the Revenue challenged the order of the ITAT for the immediate earlier AY, i.e. AY 2007-08, before this Court. The said appeal, specific to the issue of maintenance charges, came to be decided in its favour by this Court by the order dated 6th August 2012 in ITA No. 1207/2011 (CIT v. Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd.) This Court, in the said order, took note of the fact that, in the earlier AYs the ITAT had decided the issue regarding maintenan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ularly, without any change in the circumstances in the present AY i.e. 2008-09, for the Court to take a different view in the matter as far as the maintenance charges are concerned. 20. Consequently, the impugned order of the ITAT for this AY 2008-09 on the issue of maintenance charges is hereby set aside and the order of the AO qua the maintenance charges being treated as income of the Assessee is restored to file. For giving appeal effect to this part of the order, the matter has to go back to the AO since what is shown in the balance sheet of the Assessee is a composite figure of receipt of ground rent and maintenance charges. 21. Now coming to issue of treatment of ground rent, the Court finds that the decisions of the ITAT, and e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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