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2015 (10) TMI 321 - HC - Income TaxLevy of penalty under Section 271D - Whether the Tribunal is correct in concluding that the provisions of Section 269SS of the Act were attracted to the transactions under consideration with a view to levy penalty under Section 271D of the Act? - whether the exercise of discretion to find out the existence or nonexistence of a reasonable cause was properly explained by the authorities or not? - Held that:- It is true that certain amount of discretion is vested in the assessing officer as well as the appellate authority and the Tribunal to choose not to impose penalty if the assessee proves that there was reasonable cause for the failure. But, what is reasonable cause is not clearly indicated either in section 269SS or in section 273B. Therefore, in an appeal under section 260A, we can only go by the question whether the exercise of discretion to find out the existence or nonexistence of a reasonable cause was properly explained by the authorities or not. We do not find any perversity in the approach of the Tribunal. As a matter of fact, instead of distinguishing the correctness of the discretion exercised by the assessing officer, the Tribunal has independently decided the question as to whether there was a reasonable cause or not. The Tribunal has independently applied its mind and come to the conclusion that there was no reasonable cause. In the circumstances, we do not think that question Nos.1 and 3 are to be answered in favour of the assessee. Accordingly, question Nos.1 and 3 are also answered against the assessee.
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