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2013 (1) TMI 19 - HC - Income TaxEscaped assessment – Re opening of assessment – Search u/s 132 – Statement on oath u/s 132(4) - Whether filing the ROI before the wrong A.O. amounts to non-filing of return – Held that:- The said ground for reopening the assessment is, therefore, not a valid ground. On the basis of such return the concerned A.O. has already framed assessment u/s 143(3) in respect of which the respondent in the affidavit-in-reply has stated that the assessment order does not lack jurisdiction. Thus, for this reason also, the said ground is rendered unsustainable Whether there was any failure on the part of the petitioner to disclose fully and truly all material facts for his assessment – Held that:- Assessee had not disclosed to the AO that he had made such disclosure which he had subsequently retracted as according to him, there is no duty cast upon him to make such disclosure while filing his return of income. It is true that the petitioner had subsequently retracted the said statement. However, the petitioner in his statement recorded during the course of search having stated that the said income would be disclosed while filing the return for A.Y. 1995-96 ought to have brought such fact to the notice of the Assessing Officer. The contention that there was no obligation cast upon the petitioner to make such disclosure while filing the return of income, does not merit acceptance. Assessing Officer had made some efforts and examined the record of the previous assessment year, he may have come to know that this was a search and could have taken consequent action thereon. However, that by itself would not absolve the petitioner from the duty to disclose all primary facts before the Assessing Officer Merely because the format in which the return is required to be filed does not provide for any column wherein the assessee is required to state that this is a search case and that he had made certain disclosures during the course of search, does not mean that an assessee is not required to disclose other facts that are material for his assessment At the cost of repetition it may be stated that the fact regarding the petitioner having made a disclosure, though subsequently retracted, was material for the assessment of the petitioner for the assessment year under consideration. Thus, by not disclosing such material fact, evidently, the petitioner has failed to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for his assessment Decision - Appeal decides in favour of revenue
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