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TMI Blog2018 (10) TMI 437X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Act"). 3. Brief facts are, the assessee a Co-operative Society filed its return of income for the impugned assessment year on 9th October 2013, declaring income of Rs. 8,20,970. During the assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer on examining the return of income filed by the assessee noticed that in the relevant previous year, the assessee has derived rental income from mobile towers which has been offered as income from house property. Further, against such income assessee has claimed deduction under section 24(a) of the Act. Being of the view that the assessee has not let-out any house premises, the Assessing Officer called upon the assessee to justify its claim of offering rental income from mobile tower under the head income ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l before the first appellate authority. 4. The learned Commissioner (Appeals) after perusing the agreement entered by the assessee with mobile companies observed that the assessee has invited the service providers to provide indoor cellular network coverage solution / in-building solution for providing uninterrupted cellular coverage inside the premises of the assessee. He observed, as per the terms of the agreement, the cellular operators have been specifically denied any right as a tenant, sub-tenant, joint or co-tenant, lessee or sub-lessee. He observed, the assessee has not been paid the rent for letting out the terrace rather the assessee has been compensated for permitting the cellular operator to install, use, operate the cellular ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . 7. I have considered rival submissions and perused materials on record. Undisputedly, the assessee has derived rental income from letting out space in the terrace of the building to mobile companies for installing their mobile tower / antenna. It is also a fact that the assessee has offered such rental income as income from house property and has claimed deduction under section 24(a) of the Act. The Assessing Officer has rejected assessee's claim and treated the rental income as income from other sources basically for three reasons. Firstly, the assessee is not owner of the building; secondly, the terrace cannot be considered as house property and thirdly, annual letting value of the terrace is not ascertainable. Whereas, the learned Co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n addition to letting-out space on the terrace for installation and operation of antenna the assessee has provided any other service or facilities to the cellular operators. Thus, from the material on record, it is evident that the income received by the assessee from the cellular operators/mobile companies is on account of letting out space on the terrace for installation and operation of antennas and nothing else. That being the case, the rental income received by the assessee from such letting-out has to be treated as income from house property. The decisions relied upon by the learned Authorised Representative also support this view. Further, the contention of the learned Authorised Representative that in no other assessment year, asse ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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