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TMI Blog2015 (12) TMI 700X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 000/- for his book on income tax and claimed deduction under section 80QQB of the Act. The Assessing Officer disallowed deduction on the ground that the book on income-tax is not a literary work. The Assessing Officer quoted Explanation to section 80QQB, clause (b) and held that in view of the above exclusion of printed material the assessee's claim of the book that is in "question and answer" format cannot be taken as literary works. Accordingly, he disallowed the deduction. 4. Aggrieved, the assessee preferred appeal before the ld. CIT(Appeals), who also confirmed the order of the Assessing Officer by observing in paras 18 to 28 as under:- "18. I had examined the work. The book consolidates provisions of Income Tax Act 1961, Income Tax Rules, Circulars, Instructions, case decisions etc. topic wise in question answer format. The book is therefore a rearrangement of existing material. In this case, there is no imaginative, creative or a different point of view in the publication. Before I draw my conclusion, I analyse the case decisions submitted by the assessee in the context of the case below:- Submission of the assessee My view Decision in Lal Paharia . v. Gaya Prasad ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... le making written submissions on meaning off 'guide', the assessee transited to word 'guidebook' and argued that guide concerns tourist material. This is on the ground that the Assessing Officer has alleged it as a guidebook. Nowhere the Assessing Officer had concluded that the work is a 'guidebook'. He stated that it is the author who stated it to be a guidebook. The finding of Assessing Officer is as under: "Hence from the above exclusion of printed material the assessee's claim of the book that is in question and answer format cannot be taken as literary works. Moreover in the preface of the book the author himself introduce the book as "The book has been presented in style of questions and answers to enable the readers save their precious time and help them directly find the answer to a specific problem without getting through the entire chapter or a lengthy commentary." The author himself describes the book as a guidebook to the reader. On simple reading of the book it is found to be a guide, which does not have any style of its own and just simply an explanation to various provision of the Income Tax Act. The term 'guide' in the context ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion of the assessee is not accepted. In the context of the claim of assessee, here Income Tax Department is to be viewed just as a Department of Govt. of India, and the conferment of the prize is not to be taken for the purpose of the judicial decision making process under the Income Tax Act, 1961. The prize is one of the prizes one of the departments of Government of India gives for promotion of official language of India viz. Hindi. Just because its title contains the term literary, it does not mean that the work is literary for the purpose of section 80QQB of Income Tax Act, 1961. Hence this argument is also not accepted. 26. Since I had made a finding that the publication is not a literary work and is a guide and the prize given by a Department of Govt. Of India for promoting Hindi do not make the work of assessee a literary work within the meaning and ambit of clauses of Income Tax Act, 1961, I reject the ground and uphold the decision of Assessing Officer in disallowing claim of assessee under section 80QQB of Income Tax Act, 1961. Accordingly the ground is dismissed. 27. At the conclusion of hearing the appellant has cited a series of decisions and stated that as per th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ork' means any of the following works, namely:- (i) A literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, (ii) A cinematograph film, (iii) A record " We find that the CIT(A) considered the explanation to section 80QQB of the Act and noted that, it does not mean everything that is not literary as stated in Explanation to section 80QQB of the Act need be literary, since, anything out of 'brochures, commentaries, diaries, guides, journals, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, text books for schools, tracts and other publications of similar nature, by whatever name called" has to be examined to decide whether it is a literary work or not. He noted that the Indian Copyright Act defines literary work in an extremely general inclusive form. Then he went on to discuss the copyright fee by comparing these two Acts. And he finally held that every literature is not literary work in term of section 80QQB of the Act. 7. The word literary work has not defined under the Act but has been defined by section 2(o) of the Copyright Act, 1957. The expression literary work covers which are expressed in printing or writing irrespective of the question whether the quality or style ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ogether separate paragraphs in the original judgment of the court. Setting of paragraphs by the appellants of their own in the judgment entailed the exercise of the brain work, reading and understanding of subject of disputes, different issues involved, statutory provisions applicable and interpretation of the same and then dividing them in different paragraphs so that chain of thoughts and process of statement of facts and the application of law relevant to the topic discussed is not disturbed, would require full understanding of the entire subject of the judgment. Making paragraphs in a judgment could not be called a mechanical process. It requires careful consideration, discernment and choice and thus it can be called as a literary work of an author. Creation of paragraphs would obviously require extensive reading, careful study of subject and the exercise of judgment to make paragraph which has dealt with particular aspect of the case, and separating intermixing of a different subject. Creation of paragraphs by separating them from the passage would require knowledge, sound judgment and legal skill. In our opinion, this exercise and creation thereof has a flavour of minimum amo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... urt, cited supra, we are of the view that the assessee's authored book is a literary work in term of section 80QQB of the Act and accordingly, assessee is entitled to deduction u/s. 80QQB of the Act. This issue of assessee's appeal is allowed. 11. The next issue in this appeal of assessee is, whether the assessee can be treated as owner of the property in the absence of probate of the will and consequently, notional rental income can be assessed in the hands of the assessee? For this assessee has raised the following ground No. 4:- "4. For that upon facts and circumstances of the case, the Ld. CIT(A) was not justified in treating the assessee as the owner of the house property despite the fact that the 'will' from which the house was to be inherited was not probated and thereby disallowing deduction u/s. 54F amounting to Rs. 29,425/- and assessing a notional income of Rs. 48,000/- under the head house property. " 12. We have heard rival contention of the assessee and gone through facts and circumstances of the case. We find from the case records that the AO noted from the Balance Sheet of the assessee that it has included one house property in the Balance Sheet, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e is clear in this very case. The right under the will which was claimed was that Mrs. Mitter became the owner of the entire house. Of course without the will Mrs. Mitter was an equal heir with her daughters of the property left by Dr. Mitter, as the latter would be taken to have died intestate, and would thus be entitled to one fourth. It will be seen from the judgment of the High Court that it has held that the appellant is entitled to the one fourth share to which Mrs. Mitter was entitled as an heir to Dr. Miss Mitter and granted the plaintiff respondent a declaration with respect to only half the house. Therefore, the High Court was right in holding that s. 213 would bar the appellant from establishing the right of her mother as a legatee from Dr. Miss Mitter as no probate or letters of administration had been obtained of the alleged will of Dr. Miss Mitter in favour of Mrs. Mitter. The contention of the appellant on this head must therefore fail." 14. From the above admitted facts of the case that the will is not probated and precedent cited, we are of the view that no notional rent can be assessed in the hands of the assessee while computing income of the assessee under the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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