2004 (12) TMI 33

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..... addition of Rs. 17,876 made on account of disallowance of the assessee's claim for deduction under section 80HHA on the basis of a revised return which was not filed along with the original return?" The assessee is engaged in the business of manufacturing rice. The original assessment is relation to the assessment year 1983-84 was completed by the Income-tax Officer C-Ward, Ambala (hereinafter described as "the Assessing Officer"), under section 143(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (for short "the Act"), at Rs. 5,795. The assessment was reopened under section 143(2)(b). The assessee filed a revised return on September 2, 1985, along with duly audited accounts. Thereafter, vide order dated September 16, 1985, the Assessing Officer assessed th .....

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..... o-operative society, the deduction under sub-section (1) shall not be admissible unless the accounts of the small-scale industrial undertaking for the previous year relevant to the assessment year for which the deduction is claimed have been audited by an accountant as defined in the Explanation below sub-section (2) of section 288 and the assessee furnishes, along with his return of income, the report of such audit in the prescribed form duly signed and verified by such accountant. The core issue before us is whether sub-section (4) of section 80HHA of the Act is mandatory and non-compliance therewith results in depriving the assessee of the benefit of deduction in terms of sub-section (1) thereof. In CIT v. Punjab Financial Corporation .....

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..... e finalisation of the assessment. Sub-section (5) of section 32AB is not mandatory and the Assessing Officer has discretion to entertain the audit report, even though it has not been filed with the return, and give benefit of the deduction to the assessee in terms of section 32AB(1)." By applying the ratio of the aforementioned judgment to this case, we hold that section 80HHA(4) of the Act is not mandatory and non-compliance therewith cannot be made a basis for denying the benefit of deduction to the assessee in terms of section 80HHA(1) if duly audited accounts are filed by the assessee before the assessment and a plausible explanation is given for not filing the same along with the return. The facts of the case in hand show that the a .....

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