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2017 (7) TMI 581 - KERALA HIGH COURTPenalty - purchase of Gold Bullion - suppression of facts - Held that: - there is no justification for the imposition of any penalty on the petitioner for the said assessment year since, as already noted above, it was the petitioner, who brought the discrepancy with regard to non-inclusion of the purchase turnover in the return for the month of December 2013 to the notice of the assessing authority, and hence, there was no deliberate suppression or misrepresentation by the assesse necessitating the imposition of a penalty for the said assessment year. I, therefore quash P5 (a) penalty order that is impugned in the writ petition. It is relevant to note in this connection that, by Ext.P1 notice dated 24.08.2016, the assessing authority had already initiated steps in connection with the completion of an assessment by requiring the petitioner firm to produce its books of account for verification. Although it is the case of the petitioner firm that it was only thereafter, and at the time of auditing the books of accounts of the firm, that it was noticed that the purchase turnover of gold bullion referred above was not included in the return filed by the partnership firm, I am of the view that, inasmuch as the realisation by the petitioner firm, of the omission, was only after the issuance of Ext.P1 notice to them, it is a case where the petitioner could not have been permitted to revise the return so as to cure the defects that were noticed by the assessing authority. The petitioner, therefore, had to suffer the consequences of any omission in the only valid return that was filed before the assessing authority. When so viewed, I do not find any illegality in the estimation that is done by the assessing authority while finding against the petitioner in Ext.P6 order that is impugned in W.P.(C).No.33522 of 2016 - In Ext.P6(a) order, the penalty that is imposed on the petitioner is double the tax levied. I modify Ext.P6(a) order by reducing the penalty imposed from ₹ 23,61,076/- to an amount of ₹ 1,00,000/-. Petition allowed - decided partly in favor of petitioner.
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