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Issues Involved: Appeal against penalty u/s. 271B of the Income Tax Act for not maintaining books of accounts and not filing audit report for assessment year 2009-10.
Summary: The appeal was filed against the penalty levied u/s. 271B of the Income Tax Act for the assessment year 2009-10 due to the assessee not maintaining books of accounts and not filing an audit report as required by sec. 44AB of the Act. The counsel for the assessee argued that as a civil contractor, the assessee did not maintain books of accounts as there were no prescribed books for civil contract business by the CBDT. It was highlighted that in a previous assessment year, the Tribunal had deleted a similar penalty imposed on the assessee. The Departmental Representative supported the penalty upheld by the CIT(A). The Tribunal noted that in a previous assessment year, a penalty under the same section was deleted for the assessee due to the absence of prescribed books for civil contract business. It was emphasized that the legislative expectation for every business, including civil contractors, to maintain books of accounts was clear. The Tribunal found an omission in Rule 6F(1) of the Income-tax Rules regarding the prescription of books of account for civil contractors. Referring to previous cases, the Tribunal concluded that there was no justification for imposing a penalty for not getting the books of account audited when no books were maintained. The Tribunal set aside the penalty imposed by the CIT(A) and directed the Assessing Officer to delete the penalty for the current year, following the precedent set in the previous assessment year. In conclusion, the appeal filed by the assessee was allowed, and the penalty u/s. 271B for the assessment year 2009-10 was directed to be deleted, in line with the Tribunal's decision based on the absence of prescribed books for civil contract business.
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