High Court Of Delhi
Modipon Ltd. vs. CIT & Anr.
Section 244(1A)
B.C. Patel, C.J. & Badar Durrez Ahmed, J.
Civil Writ Petn. No. 1117 of 1988
22nd April, 2004
Counsel Appeared :
S.K. Aggarwal, for the Petitioner : R.D. Jolly with S.C. Sharma, for the Respondents
JUDGMENT
By the court :
The petitioner has filed this writ petition, inter alia, challenging the order made under s. 264 of the IT Act, 1961, for the asst. yrs. 1976-77 and 1980-81 passed by the CIT on 12th Feb., 1988. Against the assessment made by the AO, the appeal was preferred and as a consequence of an appellate order granting refund, the AO was required to compute the figures. It appears that the AO pointed out in the computation sheet as under :
“Refund consequent upon the order made by the CIT(A), dt. 21st May, 1984 : 1. Rs. 67,12,797 by way of tax and interest 139(8) 1,05,927 216 49,557 220(2) 10,66,591”
The AO has thereafter separately calculated the amount of interest payable to the assessee under s. 244(1A) of the Act at Rs. 9,56,254. The matter was argued at length by the learned counsel for the petitioner. Essentially, two issues arise in this matter, which are as under :
“1. Whether the assessee is entitled to interest under s. 244(1A) in respect of interest payments under s. 220(2) of the IT Act, 1961 ?
2. Whether the assessee is entitled to interest on interest already due under s. 244(1A) on delayed payment of refund ?”
2. So far as the first question is concerned, it requires no more debate as the question is answered by the Gujarat High Court in CIT vs. Gujarat State Warehousing Corpn. (2002) 172 CTR (Guj) 546 : (2002) 256 ITR 596 (Guj). The question therein referred was as under :
“Whether the assessee is entitled to interest under s. 244(1A) in respect of interest payments under ss. 215, 217 and 220(2) of the IT Act, 1961 ?”
The Court after considering various decisions decided the question in favour of the assessee and against the Revenue and we find no reason to take a different view.
As regards the second issue, it is required to be noted that, after hearing the matter at some length, the learned counsel for the petitioner did not press this issue and, therefore, this petition is required to be allowed only to the aforesaid extent that is to say, that the assessee is entitled to interest under s. 244(1A) in respect of the interest payments under s. 220(2) of the IT Act, 1961.
It goes without saying that, in view of the order passed by the Division Bench of this Court on 12th Oct., 1988, the assessee will be entitled to get the amount of interest @ 12 per cent. Counsel for the petitioner states that the assessee would be entitled to get Rs. 71,995 from the date of filing of the writ petition till the date of disposal, that is today.
With the aforesaid directions, the petition stands disposed of.
[Citation : 270 ITR 257]
