9911796707
TMI Blog1985 (4) TMI 110X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and Rs. 2,400 per child over 12 years of age up to a maximum of 21 years and/or Rs. 1,200 per child below 12 years. For each of the accounting years relevant to the assessment years under appeal, the assessee was paid Rs. 9,600 as leave travel assistance. In the original assessments for these two assessment years, which were completed on 25-7-1980 and 17-10-1980, the leave travel assistance was treated as exempt under section 10(5) of the income-tax Act, 1961 ('the Act'). The assessments were Completed under section 143(1) of the Act. These assessments were rectified under section 154 of the Act on the ground that an error apparent from the record had occurred in granting exemption with regard to the entire amount of leave travel assistanc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rectified under section 154. 5. We may first deal with the appeals by the department. As already stated, the assessee received Rs. 9,600 as leave travel assistance for each of the assessment years under appeal. In describing this amount as 'concession' leave travel concession rules relating to the Central Government servants seem to have had some influence. The correct description of the amount will be leave travel assistance. In the leave rules of the company, the amount is described as leave travel assistance expenses. Before the ITO, the assessee had furnished the details of the expenditure incurred by him in the trip made to Bombay during the leave period. The car hire from Munnar to Cochin and back and the plane tickets from Cochin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing on leave to any place in India. In the present case, it cannot be disputed that the entire amount of Rs. 9,600 was received by the assessee as leave travel assistance for proceeding to a place in India. There is nothing in the section which confines the exemption to the car, train or plane fare incurred for proceeding to the place. In this connection, it will be useful to compare the exemption provided in section 10(14) where, while exempting any special allowance or benefit granted to meet expenses wholly, necessarily and exclusively incurred in the performance of the duties of an office, the exemption is confined to the extent to which such expenses are actually incurred for that purpose. There is no such restrictive provision in sect ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... leave travel assistance, if any, received by the assessee in excess of what would have been allowable to him, had he proceeded to his home district on leave. But, in the present case, the disallowance is not for the reason that Bombay is not in the home district of the assessee and that the assistance in connection with the travel to the home district would have been much less. The disallowance is solely on the basis that the exemption is confined to the actual fare incurred by the assessee. There is nothing in section 10(5), which restricts the exemption to the actual fare. There is nothing in the proviso which says that the exemption will be limited to what a Central Government servant would have received as leave travel concession while ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... alone as contended for by the department. " In view of what is stated above, the rectification orders are not sustainable and the appeals filed by the department have to fail. 6. The ground taken in the cross-objections filed by the assessee is that the AAC erred in not recording a finding on the validity of the rectification orders by declining to pronounce upon the contention and that the AAC should be deemed to have decided the issue against the assessee. The position is well settled that the powers under section 154 can be exercised only if the mistake is an obvious and patent mistake and not something which can be established by a long-drawn process of reasoning on points on which there may be conceivably two opinions. In the pres ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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