Commissioner Of Income Tax vs M/S. Larsen & Toubro Ltd
- Citation2009 SCC OnLine SC 1981
Ratio decidendi
The rule this decision rests on
An employer deducting tax under Section 192 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, on payments towards Leave Travel Concessions or Conveyance Allowance is not under a statutory obligation to collect and examine supporting evidence to verify that the employee actually utilized the amounts paid, where no CBDT circular requires such examination; the statutory obligation to produce evidence of utilization rests on the employee who is the beneficiary of the exemption under Section 10(5).
Written by Miss Lucy from the judgment below, not taken from a headnote.
Judgment
As delivered
COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX & ANR. Appellant (s)
VERSUS
M/S. LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD. Respondent(s)
(With office report )
WITH Civil Appeal NO. 992 of 2005 - With office report
Date: 21/01/2009 This Appeal was called on for hearing today.
CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S.H. KAPADIA HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AFTAB ALAM
For Appellant(s) Mr. K. Radhakrishnan, Sr.Adv. Mr. Arijit Prasad, Adv. Mr. Aman Ahluwalia, Adv. Mr. Rahul Kaushik, Adv. Mr. B.V. Balaram Das,Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. P.J. Pardiwalla, Sr.Adv. Mr. Rustom B.Hathikhanawala, Adv.
Mr. K.T. Anantharaman, Adv. Mr. Vasudevan Raghavan,Adv.
UPON hearing counsel the Court made the following ORDER
The appeals are dismissed with no order as to costs.
(S. Thapar) (Madhu Saxena) PS to Registrar Court Master
The signed order is placed on the file.
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO.993 OF 2005
COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX & ANR. ...APPELLANT (S)
VERSUS
M/S LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD. ...RESPONDENT(S)
WITH
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 992 OF 2005
ORDER
A short question which arises for determination in these Civil Appeal(s) is - whether the assessee(s) was under statutory obligation under Income Tax Act, 1961, and/or the Rules to collect evidence to show that its employee(s) had actually utilized the amount(s) paid towards Leave Travel Concession(s)/Conveyance Allowance?
It may be noted that the beneficiary of exemption under Section 10(5) is an individual employee. There is no circular of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) requiring the employer under Section 192 to collect and examine the supporting evidence to the Declaration to be submitted by an employee(s).
For the above reasons there is no merit in the Civil Appeals and the same are dismissed with no order as to costs.
....................J. [ S.H. KAPADIA ]
New Delhi, ....................J January 21, 2009 [ AFTAB ALAM ]
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