Royal Infrastructure vs Deputy Commissioner Of Income Tax ... on 29 April, 2019
19. This court in the case of Cliantha Research
Ltd. v. Deputy Commissioner of Incometax,[2014]
225 Taxman 102 (Gujarat), was dealing with a case
where the assessee had made a claim for deduction
under section 80IB(8A) of the Act which was
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C/SCA/20078/2018 JUDGMENT
thoroughly examined by the Assessing Officer
during the course of scrutiny assessment wherein
the Assessing Officer had raised various queries
which were replied by the assessee. He, however,
did not raise any specific query as regards the
allowability of the claim on the premise that the
petitioner was doing scientific research for and
on behalf of companies. The court held that
merely for failure of the Assessing Officer to
raise such question would not authorise him to
reopen the assessment even within a period of
four years from the end of the relevant
assessment year as any such attempt on his part
would be based on mere change of opinion. The
court held that when a claim was processed at
length after calling for detailed explanation
from the assessee, and the same was accepted,
merely because a certain element or angle was not
in the mind of the Assessing Officer while
accepting such a claim, cannot be a ground for
issuing notice for reassessment. This decision
would be squarely applicable to the facts of the
present case. In this case also, during the
course of scrutiny assessment, the Assessing
Officer examined the claim for deduction under
section 80IB(10) of the Act in detail and raised
several queries and after processing such claim
accepted the same. He, however, failed to
examine the claim in the context of clauses (e)
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C/SCA/20078/2018 JUDGMENT
and (f) thereof. Thus, merely because while
examining the claim under section 80IB(10) of the
Act, a certain angle was not in the mind of the
Assessing Officer would not be a good ground for
reopening the assessment as the same would amount
to a mere change of opinion.