TMI Blog2000 (8) TMI 63X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... An order under section 154 of the Act was passed by the Assessing Officer holding that interest allowed to the assessee under section 244A(1) was not allowable and had been allowed by mistake. The stand of the assessee that the action was not permissible under section 154 was not accepted. The assessee filed an appeal before the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) which yielded no relief to it. On further appeal, the Tribunal held that section 154 did not apply to a case of this nature. The factual position which is undisputed is as follows: For the assessment year in question, the return was processed under section 143(1)(a) on March 19, 1993, on a total returned income of Rs. 1,69,71,48,952 and total tax and interest payable was comp ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ordingly, the interest allowed was withdrawn. As noted above, the appeal before the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) did not yield any relief. In further appeal, the Tribunal held that this was not a case which was covered under section 154. In support of the appeal, learned counsel for the Revenue submitted that the Tribunal has erred in its view that section 154 has no application. According to him, the position was clear in law and therefore interest which has been wrongly allowed had been rightly withdrawn. A bare look at section 154 of the Act makes it clear that a "mistake apparent from the record" is rectifiable. In order to attract the application of section 154, the mistake must exist and the same must be apparent from the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cal or arithmetical mistakes. On the other hand, it does not cover any mistake which may be discovered by a complicated process of investigation, argument or proof. As observed by the apex court in Master Construction Co. (P.) Ltd. v. State of Orissa [1966] 17 STC 360, an error which is apparent from the record should be one which is not an error which depends for its discovery on elaborate arguments on questions of fact or law. A similar view was also expressed in Satyanarayan Laxminarayan Hegde v. Mallikarjun Bhavanappa Tirumale [1960] AIR 1960 SC 137. It is to be noted that the language used in Order 47, rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (in short "the CPC"), is different from the language used in section 154 of the Act. The po ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... able of argument or debate. It, therefore, follows that a decision on a debatable point of law or fact or failure to apply the law to a set of facts which remains to be investigated cannot be corrected by way of rectification. On the facts of the present case, we find that there was no mistake apparent from the record which could be rectified under section 154 of the Act. The questions proposed deal with conclusions on the facts giving rise to no question of law. The Tribunal recorded the following findings with reference to the submissions made before it : "10. Learned counsel for the assessee invited our attention on the provisions of the Act. It was stated that clause (b) of section 244A(1) provides that where refund is out of tax ot ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... be conceivably two opinions. A decision on a debatable point of law is not a mistake apparent from the record. Reference was also made to the departmental Circular No. 549. dated October 31, 1989, issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes wherein it is stated that interest is to be allowed on the basis of refund due as a result of intimation issued under section 143(1)(a). 13 . It transpires from the perusal of the impugned order that an attempt was made to make interpretation of section 244A. There is no clear-cut mandate in the section by which the Assessing Officer can deny interest to the assessee on the amounts paid under section 140A. Therefore, the question a propos the chargeability of interest is a debatable question. The Supr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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