TMI Blog1983 (11) TMI 57X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... bearing No. 174, Subbarama Chetty Road, Bangalore. During the previous year relevant to the assessment year 1971-72 this property was used by the firm of M/s. Guruswamy Co. for its business, free of rent. The assessee was one of the partners in the said firm. The ITO reopened the assessment for the assessment year 1971-72 to include the annual letting value of the premises in his individual assessment. The assessee objected to the said proposal on the ground that the said premises was used by the firm of M/s. Guruswamy Co. for its business during the previous year and that the assessee being a partner of the firm, was entitled to claim exemption of the annual value of the property in his individual assessment. The ITO rejected the as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uch portions of such property as he may occupy for the purposes of any business or profession carried on by him the profits of which are chargeable to income-tax, shall be chargeable to income-tax under the head 'Income from house property'. " Section 23 defines " annual value " and indicates how the annual value is to be arrived at. That annual value is taxed subject to certain allowances and s. 24 enumerates such allowances. Section 25 specifies the amounts not deductible from the income from house property. Section 26 provides for the mode of taxing the income from the property owned by co-owners. It will be seen from the above provisions that one of the heads of income enumerated in s. 14 of the Act is the head " Income from house p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al letting value of the godown and included it in the total income of the assessee in his assessment. In the appeal preferred before the AAC, the assessee objected to the said inclusion on the ground that the premises was being used by him for the business carried on by him as partner of the firm. The AAC upheld the assessee's contention and deleted the annual letting value from the total income of the assessee. The Revenue took up the matter in appeal before the Tribunal and contended that the firm is an entity separate and distinct from its partners and therefore, the business carried on the firm cannot be construed as L business carried on by the partners. On the dismissal of the appeal by the Tribunal, a question of law identical with t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n by the Gujarat High Court. Section 22 which provides for exemption should be strictly construed. The wordings of the section are very significant and it can be seen therefrom that it is only the owner of the property who can claim deduction and that owner must be an assessee and the property concerned must have been used or occupied for the assessee's business. " The, occupation " of the property in the context must mean " occupation as owner or his own occupation ". The fact of occupation, therefore, must go with the owner of the which means actual occupation for the purpose of his business or profession. The above view find support from the following decisions : In Bhai Sunder Dass Sons v CIT [1972] 85 ITR 28 (Delhi), while examin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
