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TMI Blog2015 (12) TMI 392X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d date’ in section 44AB of the Act means ‘on or before the specified date’. In this view of the matter, there was no delay in audit of the accounts in terms of section 44AB of the Act - Decided in favour of assessee. - ITA No. 6199/Del/2013 - - - Dated:- 21-10-2015 - SH. A.T.VARKEY, JM AND SH. PRASHANT MAHARISHI, AM For The Appellant : Sh. Rajiv Jain, CA For The Respondent : Sh. Hemant Gupta, SR. DR ORDER Per Prashant Maharishi, AM: 01. This appeal is preferred by the assessee against the order of CIT(A) dated 27.08.2013 confirming the penalty of ₹ 1,00,000/- u/s 271B of the Income Tax Act. 02. Brief facts of the case are that the assessee is a partnership firm filed its return of income on 30th March, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to be construed as tax audit report required to be obtained on or before 30th September 2008. Hence, he submitted that assessee has obtained tax audit report in time and there is no default u/s 271B. For this proposition, he relied on the decision of Hon ble Bombay High Court in case of Prem Chand Nathmal Kothari vs. Kishanlal Bachharaj Vyas Ors. dated 5th April 1975 reported in AIR 1976 Bombay 82 wherein relying on the Chambers Dictionary it has been held that word before means previous to the expiration of . Therefore, before 30th September, 2008 means before the end of 30th September 2008. He further relied on the decision of Allahabad ITAT in case of Chandra Kumar Seth vs. ITO 62 ITD 106, CIT vs. Jai Durga construction Company 133 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f such previous year audited by an accountant before the specified date and furnish by that date the report of such audit in the prescribed form duly signed and verified by such accountant and setting forth such particulars as may be prescribed: Explanation - for the purposes of this section,-- (ii) specified date , in relation to the accounts of the assessee of the previous year relevant to an assessment year means the 30th day of September of the assessment year. Therefore the controversy is whether tax audit report obtained by assessee on 30.09.2008 is due compliance of provisions of Sec. 271B of the act or not. 06. Above controversy has been decided by ITAT Allahabad bench in Chandra Kr. Seth vs. ITO 62 IT 106 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , or of the gross receipts in profession, in such previous year or years or a sum of one hundred thousand rupees, whichever is less. 17. There is a link with furnishing the report of audit alongwith the return of his income filed under sub-section (1) of section 139. The last date for obtaining a report of audit was clearly by that date and not before that date . The last date would, therefore, be 31-7-1988 in the present case. No specific purpose would be served in getting the accounts audited a day earlier i.e. by 30-7-1988. It would, therefore, be reasonable to interpret the expression before the specified date as by the specified date . 18. The learned counsel has rightly brought to our notice that a similar expressio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ged to file their returns by 31st July, after closing their returns by 31st March. This would have resulted in heavy pressure of work on the audit profession, because all those assessees, who are required to get their accounts audited, would have been obliged to do so within a short span of four months. Also, all such returns would have been filed with the Department, mostly towards the end of July every year, causing a glut of such returns within a very short period. To remove these difficulties, the Amending Act, 1987, has substituted a new sub-section (1), which staggers the dates for filing the returns of income by defferent classes of assessees. 19. We have also gone through carefully the decisions of the Bombay High Court in Pr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ch is intended to achieve. That is why in deciding the true scope and effect of the relevant words in any statutory provision, the context in which the words occur, the subject of the statute in which the provision is included, and the policy underlying the statute assume relevance and become material. As Halsbury has observed, the words should be construed in the light of their context rather than what may be either their strict etymological sense or their popular meaning apart from that context . 20. Thereafter certain other parts of the Act were also examined and it was observed that if all these sections were read together and harmoniously, it was obvious that the word before was used by the Legislature in the context of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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