SUNDARAM INDUSTRIES LIMITED Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE assessee is engaged in the business of manufacture and fitting of bus and truck bodies. It undertakes that work on the chassis with the engine and controls brought to it by its customers. What rolls out at the end of that process is a commercial vehicle, complete in all respects, though the assessee is not the manufacturer of the chassis on which the body is built, nor is the assessee the owner of the chassis. THE assessee's claim in the assessment year 1977-78 that it is entitled to investment allowance under section 32A(2)(b) , as according to it, it is engaged in the business of manufacture or production of "commercial vehicles", being item No. 14 of the Ninth Schedule to the Income-tax Act, having been negatived by the Income-tax Officer as also by the appellate authority and the Tribunal, the following question has been brought before us, at the instance of the assessee :