TMI Blog1975 (9) TMI 16X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing the penalty under section 271(1)(c) of Rs. 10,000 imposed by the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner is sound in law ? " The appeal before the Tribunal was in respect of levy of penalty under section 271(1)(c). The penalty came to be imposed on the assessee in the following circumstances : In the assessment proceedings the Income-tax Officer found two cash credits of Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000. The assessing officer believed the first one and disbelieved the other. According to the assessee, he had received Rs. 10,000 from his father in 1947 in the form of gold and also received provident fund money of Rs. 8,000 on the father's retirement in 1969. So, according to him, the entire amount of Rs. 15,000 was available with the father to lend ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lanation he had given for showing the cash credit. His explanation had been disbelieved during the assessment proceedings. So, there was no further burden on the revenue to show that the sum of Rs. 10,000 was concealed income of the assessee for the year. Nor was there any onus on the department to establish that the assessee had given inaccurate particulars of income. The very fact that his explanation had been disbelieved by the assessing authority is sufficient proof of the assessee furnishing inaccurate particulars. In other words, Sri Rama Rao's contention comes to this. Once the assessing officer disbelieves the explanation offered by the assessee in regard to the cash credit, the revenue need not show anything further in the way of e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat had been tendered by the assessee during the course of the assessment proceedings and impose a penalty under section 271. The Supreme Court in Karmani Properties Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income-tax [1971] 82 ITR 547 (SC) and Aluminium Corporation of India Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income-tax [ 1972] 86 ITR 11 (SC) has rejected this contention. Following the two decisions it was held by a Division Bench of this court consisting of Obul Reddi C.J. and Punnayya J. in Additional Commissioner of Income-tax v. Narayanadas Ramkishan [1975] 100 ITR 18 (AP), that establishment of mens rea is an essential ingredient of a criminal offence. Though any statute can exclude the establishment of mens rea by a specific provision, it is a good rule of const ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... down by the Supreme Court in the aforesaid two decisions fully answers the contention of Sri Rama Rao on behalf of the department. At the same time, we must refer to two Bench decisions of this court relied on by the learned standing counsel for the revenue. The first of them is Commissioner of Income-tax v. Anantharam Veerasingaiah Co. [1975] 99 ITR 544 (AP). We do not think that Chinnappa Reddy and A. D. V. Reddy JJ. laid down any proposition different from the view expressed by the Supreme Court in the two decisions referred to above. They pointed out that the quantum of evidence to establish that an unexplained cash credit is an income receipt must vary from case to case depending on the facts and circumstances of the particular ca ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Income-tax v. Anantharam Veerasingaiah Co. [1975] 99 ITR 544 (AP) will have to be understood in the light of the circumstances which we have mentioned above. Likewise, reference is made to a decision of Sambasiva Rao, Actg. C.J., and Madhava Rao J. in I.T.Cs. Nos. 109, 110, 111 and 112 of 1974 [Additional Commissioner of Income-tax v. Rasheed Ahmed [1977] 109 ITR 665 (AP) (Appendix)], where certain questions were framed and the Tribunal was directed to state a case and refer them to the High Court. Once again this was on the basis of the facts in that case. The legal principle has been clearly laid down by the Supreme Court and it has been followed by this court in Additional Commissioner of Income-tax v. Narayanadas Ramkishan [1975] 1 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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