2016 (5) TMI 1162 - ITAT MUMBAI - Income Tax

Head Note / Extract:
Revision u/s 263 - CIT has taken the view that the assessing officer has completed the assessments without making proper enquiries with regard to the incriminating documents - Held that:- It cannot be held that the assessing officer did not carry out enquiry or verification which should have been done, since the facts and circumstances of the case and the incriminating document was not considered to be strong by the AO to implicate the assessee. Thus, we are of the view that the assessing officer has taken a plausible view in the facts and circumstances of the case. Even though the Ld Pr. CIT has drawn certain adverse inferences from the document, yet it can seen that they are debatable in nature. Further, as noticed earlier, the Ld Pr. CIT has not brought any material on record by making enquiries or verifications to substantiate his inferences. He has also not shown that the view taken by him is not sustainable in law. Thus, we are of the view that the Ld Pr. CIT has passed the impugned revision orders only to carry out fishing and roving enquiries with the objective of substituting his views with that of the AO. Hence we are of the view that the Ld Pr. CIT was not justified was not correct in law in holding that the impugned assessment orders were erroneous. At the time of hearing, it was pointed out to Ld D.R that there are references to various names such as Mumbai Naveen, Ravi Mumbai, Vijaya Mum, Sanjeev Shetty etc. Further the entries are dated from March 99 to February, 2012. Under these set of facts, a specific question was asked to Ld D.R as to how these entries can transalate into income in the hands of the assessee, since the same lists out payments made to various persons on various dates. Unless it is established that these payments can be taken as income in the hands of the assessee, they cannot be assessed in his hands. In that case, it cannot be said that these entries would cause any prejudice to the interests of the revenue, if they are not assessable in the hands of the assessee. The Ld D.R replied that these aspects require examination at the end of the assessing officer. The said stand taken by the department clearly shows that they are also not sure as to whether these entries could be considered as income in the hands of the assessee. Further, we notice that the Ld Pr. CIT has not brought on record any material to show that these amounts were paid to the assessee or on his behalf. Even if it is considered for a moment that the assessee could be linked with it, without showing that the entries noted down in the impugned document results in income in the hands of the assessee, in our considered view, it cannot be said that the assessment orders passed by the AO could be taken as prejudicial to the interests of the revenue. Accordingly we are of the view that the revision orders passed by Ld Pr. CIT falls on this ground also. - Decided in favour of assessee.