ITA No. 81 of 2010 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. ITA No. 81 of 2010 Date of Decision: March 30, 2010 Commissioner of Income Tax, Jalandhar …Appellant Versus M/s Shivalik Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Hoshiarpur …Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M. KUMAR HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE JITENDRA CHAUHAN Present: Mr. Vivek Sethi, Advocate, for the appellant-revenue. 1. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 2. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? M.M.KUMAR, J. The Revenue has approached this Court under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for brevity 'the Act') challenging order dated 3.7.2009 passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Amritsar Bench, Amritsar (for brevity 'the Tribunal') in ITA No. 268(ASR)/2009 in respect of the assessment year 2005-06. The following questions of law have been sought to be raised for determination of this Court:- i)Whether the Tribunal was right in law in disallowing the claim of the assessee bank for deduction u/s 80(P) (2)(a)(i) in respect of income earned from utilization of its reserve funds being statutory reserves u/s 67(2) of the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act, 1961 ? ii)Whether the assessee bank is entitled to claim deduction under Section 80(P)(2)(a)(i) in respect of income earned from utilization of its voluntary reserves other than the statutory reserves mentioned above ? ITA No. 81 of 2010 2 iii)Whether the Tribunal was right in law in holding that the locker rent is not deductible under Section 80P(2)(a)(i) ? The matter is no longer res integra. This Court in the case of Commissioner of Income Tax v. Nawanshahar Central Co-operative Bank Ltd., [2003] 263 ITR 320, has held that deduction under Section 80P(2)(a)(i) of the Act, on account of interest income on Government securities, debentures, bonds, Kisan Vikas Patras and C.D. of IDBI was admissible. The investment in the said bonds has been held to be statutory investment in accordance with Section 44 of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1961 and, thus, eligible for deduction under Section 80P (2)(a)(i) of the Act. The view taken by the Tribunal is in accordance with the above judgment of this Court. It is also conceded position that the Special Leave Petition against the aforementioned judgment, has been dismissed by Hon’ble the Supreme Court. Moreover, a Division Bench of this Court has already dismissed a similar appeal, bearing ITA No. 594 of 2009, on 2.2.2010, which was filed by the appellant- revenue against the assessee-respondent in respect of earlier assessment years 2002-03 to 2004-05. Accordingly, this appeal fails and the same is dismissed. (M.M. KUMAR) JUDGE (JITENDRA CHAUHAN) March 30, 2010 JUDGE okg