it is not open to the assessee to bifurcate Depreciation into current & C/F depreciation to claim u/s 32 of I.T.Act

S. 32: The assessee has the right to disclaim depreciation in its entirety. However, it cannot claim depreciation for the current year and disclaim unabsorbed depreciation

The assessee claimed the depreciation allowance insofar as it pertained to the current year. At the same time, it did not want to claim the set off of the unabsorbed depreciation allowance of the previous years. The Supreme Court had to consider whether it is open to the assessee to invoke the provisions of Section 32 of the Act by claiming depreciation of the current year, but at the same time choose not to make a claim of set off of unabsorbed depreciation allowance of the previous years. HELD by the Supreme Court rejecting the plea:

Once the unabsorbed carried forward depreciation has become a part of the depreciation of the current year, it is not open to the assessee to bifurcate the two again and exercising its choice to claim the depreciation of the current year under Section 32(1) of the Act and take a position that since unabsorbed depreciation of the previous years is not claimed, it cannot be thrusted upon the assessee. The position would have been different if the assesse had not claimed any depreciation at all. However, once the depreciation is claimed and while giving deductions the depreciation is to be set off against the profits of the current year prior to the unabsorbed carried forward investment allowance, it is the entire depreciation, namely, the depreciation of the current year as well as the unabsorbed carried forward depreciation, which is to be taken into account as by virtue of the fiction created under Section 32(2) of the Act, carried forward depreciation also partakes the character of depreciation of the current year. This scrambled egg cannot be unscrambled now. Otherwise, it would amount to negating the legal fiction that is created by the said provision, even to the limited extent. In fact, the case falls within the ambit of the said limited extent of legal fiction and gets covered by it Commissioner of Income-Tax, Kanpur v. Mother India Refrigeration Industries P. Ltd. (1985) 155 ITR 711 referred)