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2022 (12) TMI 675 - AT - Income TaxAssessment u/s 153A - absence of any incriminating material, no addition can be made in the assessment proceedings u/s 153A r.w.s.143(3) - whether, in the absence of any incriminating material found during the course of the search operations, any addition can be made in an assessment u/s 143(3) read with Section 153A? - HELD THAT:- As in the case of CIT vs. Thana Electricity Supply Ltd. [1993 (4) TMI 37 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT] to the effect "The decision of one High Court is neither binding precedent for another High Court nor for the Courts or the Tribunals outside its own territorial jurisdiction. It is well-settled that the decision of a High Court will have the force of binding precedent only in the State or territories on which the Court has jurisdiction. In other States or outside the territorial jurisdiction of that High Court it may, at best, have only persuasive effect". Unlike the decisions of the Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court, which bind us in letter and in spirit on account of the binding force of law, the decisions of the Hon'ble non-jurisdictional High Court are followed by the lower authorities, only in the absence of benefit of guidance by the Hon’ble jurisdictional High Court on that issue, on account of the persuasive effect of these decisions and on account of the concept of judicial propriety-factors which are inherently subjective in nature. Quite clearly, therefore, the applicability of the non-jurisdictional High Court is never absolute, without exceptions and as a matter of course, and that too is limited only on the issues on which there is no guidance of the Hon’ble jurisdictional High Court. In the present case, we have the benefit of guidance on the subject by the Hon’ble jurisdictional High Court. There is thus no occasion for us to consider the judgments of the Hon’ble non-jurisdictional High Courts. In view of these discussions, the decisions of the Hon’ble non-jurisdictional High Court have no relevance in the present context. It is also elementary in law that the mere pendency of the appeal, against a binding judicial precedent, in a higher judicial forum does not dilute, curtail or otherwise narrow down its binding nature. As long as the binding judicial precedent holds good in law, as it does unless it is upturned or reversed by a higher judicial forum, it binds the lower judicial forums. As also bearing in mind the entirety of the case, we uphold the plea of the assessee, and respectfully following the coordinate bench in the case of LUXORA REALTORS PVT. LTD. [2022 (2) TMI 866 - ITAT MUMBAI] as also Hon’ble jurisdictional High Court”s judgments in the cases of Continental Warehousing and All Cargo Global Logistics [2015 (5) TMI 656 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT] hold that the impugned additions, in respect of share capital subscriptions from the two Mauritius based entities, namely Access Investment India and Aanya Properties (2) Limited must be deleted for this short reason alone. We, therefore, delete the impugned additions. The assessee gets the relief accordingly.
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