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TMI Blog1984 (12) TMI 146X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... er section 139(8) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ('the Act'). The assessee contends that the Commissioner (Appeals) should not have upheld the levy of interest under section 139(8). This contention is based on the argument that the return of income was filed on 31-7-1980 whereas it was due on 30-6-1980 and, hence, there was no complete month of default. Attention was invited to the provisions of rule 119A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 ('the Rules'), which provided that while calculating interest under any provision of the Act, periods of delay which are of a fraction of a month should be ignored. Since the return was filed on 31-7-1980, it was submitted that there was no complete month of default which would have occurred only had the return b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he interest is to be calculated ; (b) the amount of tax, penalty or other sum in respect of which such interest is to be calculated shall be rounded off to the nearest multiple of one hundred rupees and for this purpose any fraction of one hundred rupees shall be ignored ; and the amount so rounded off shall be deemed to be the amount in respect of which the interest is to be calculated. " At the first sight there is a conflict between the rule and the provisions of the section. But the rule provides a concession, viz., that the period of default shall be rounded off to whole months and for this purpose a fraction of a month is to be ignored. Since the rule has provided for a concession, the assessee can claim that this concession should ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent of the Madras High Court, which is binding on us, the return, when it is filed on the 31st July, cannot be said to have been filed after a delay of a whole month. Therefore, the delay is technically only of a fraction of a month and, hence, under the provisions of rule 119A, it has to be ignored and no interest would be leviable. The learned departmental representative, we may state, had referred to the note of the Ministry of Law, which reads as under : " In this connection reference might be made to Ramanath Aiyar's Law Lexicon, wherein it has been observed : 'The term month where employed in modern statutes or contracts, and not appearing to have been used in a different sense, denotes a period terminating with the day of the succe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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