TMI Blog1998 (4) TMI 71X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nit and the assessee also claimed the necessary deduction under section 80J of the Act in the assessment year 1971-72. The Income-tax Officer granted deduction for a sum of Rs. 1,38,034 under section 80J of the Act for that year. In the next assessment year 1972-73 the relief under section 80J(3) of the Act (was not granted) due to the absence of particulars furnished by the assessee. The assessee appealed to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner on the issue of its "entitlement" to relief under section 80J of the Act in respect of the "press shop" unit. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner allowed the appeal preferred by the assessee and directed the Income-tax Officer to grant the relief under section 80J of the Act. The deficiency for the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... claim the relief under section 80J of the Act in the assessment year 1980-81 if the assessee is otherwise entitled to the same in accordance with law. In this view of the matter, the Appellate Tribunal remitted the matter to the Income-tax Officer to ascertain the facts relating to the claim made by the assessee and dispose of the same in accordance with law. The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal on the basis of the directions of this court has referred to us the following questions of law for our consideration under section 256 of the Income-tax Act : "1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal is correct in directing the Income-tax Officer to re-examine an issue which has become final in the earlier assessm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... be granted the deduction under section 80J of the Act from the assessment of its income for the particular assessment year. If the assessee is allowed to change its stand that the commercial production had begun in some subsequent year then it would unsettle the finality of the assessment proceedings of the initial year. No doubt it is true that there is no res judicata in income-tax proceedings. But once the initial year for the grant of section 80J deduction is fixed and in our opinion, it is fixed unalterably, the carry forward of the deficiency has to be determined beginning from the base year in which the deduction was granted and the subsequent assessment years have to roll from the initial assessment year. Under the scheme of section ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ial year and the issue for the fixation of the previous year cannot be reactivated or reagitated beyond the year in which the initial assessment year was fixed. In Radhasoami Satsang v. CIT [1992] 193 ITR 321, the Supreme Court approved a Full Bench decision of this court in Sankaralinga Nagar (T.M.M.) and Bros. v. CIT [1929] 4 ITC 226 and the following observation of this court quoted with the approval of the Supreme Court is relevant : "The principle to be deduced from these two cases is that where the question relating to assessment does not vary with the income every year but depends on the nature of the property or any other question on which the rights of the parties to be taxed are based, e.g., whether a certain property is trust ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he fundamental aspects relating to different assessment years have been found as facts one way or the other and the parties have allowed that position to be sustained by not challenging the order, it would not be at all proper to allow the position to be changed in the subsequent year. On the above reasoning of the Supreme Court, we hold that it is not permissible for the assessee to take a different and contrary stand during the progress of its industrial unit than what was its stand earlier in the assessment year 1980-81. We, therefore, hold that once the initial assessment year had been fixed, it is neither permissible, nor open to the Revenue or to the assessee to change its stand to suit its own convenience and the Tribunal in our view ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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