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2017 (3) TMI 1247 - HC - Income TaxAdmission of Additional evidence by the ITAT- exemption u/s 54F - an opportunity to the Appellant to rebut the detrimental conclusions - Held that:- In this case the appellant produced the additional evidence and admittedly after making submissions in support of it being allowed to be produced, also made submissions on merits. The petitioner/appellant did not call upon the Tribunal to pass an on order on his application to produce additional evidence contained in the AEPB before making his submissions on merits and therefore proceeded upon the understanding that the application has been allowed. The Tribunal has taken into consideration the submissions of counsel for the appellants based on the documents forming part of AEPB. There is no doubt in our mind that the Tribunal had permitted the appellants to make submissions on the basis of these documents. If that were not to be case, there may have been something to be said in favour of the appellants, however, in the present case the appellants were aware that the attention of the Tribunal had been invited to the documents in question and the Tribunal had in fact considered contents of the documents on merits and as to how it would affect the appellants' case. Having done so, in our view no injustice has been caused to the appellants. Had the Tribunal declined to consider the documents in our view it would have been appropriate that some reasons will have to be given by them for depriving the parties the benefit of the submissions to be made on the basis of such additional documents. This, in our view is necessary since the rules itself provide for the right to seek reliance upon additional documents. We have no doubt that in the present case the Tribunal did not commit any error in the facts and circumstances of the present case in not having passed the order on the application for leading additional evidence contained in AEPB before proceeding to pass the order on merits of the controversy in the appeal. - Decided in favour of revenue Applicability of Section 54F(1) juxtaposed with Section 54F(4) - non-completion of construction of the building in which the appellant – assessee had agreed to purchase flats - contiguity of three flats which the appellant – assessee had agreed to purchase - Held that:- We have already observed that we are not required to go into this aspect in order to answer the question, since on first principles, we find that the assessee had not complied with Section 54F. In our view it is not necessary to consider this aspect of challenge and hence reference to said decision is of no avail to the assessee. The other cases enlisted by us in this judgment have no bearing on the facts of the case of the Appellant herein. In the course of the submissions in support of the Appellants' case over exemption under section 54F Mr. Shah has strenuously argued and tried to draw a parallel between the provisions of Section 24(2) of the 1922 Act and Section 72 contending they are in pari materia. Likewise Sections 22 and 22(2A) were in pari materia with Sections 139 and 80 respectively of the 1961 Act. However, in our view this does not come to assistance of Mr. Shah inasmuch as the language of Section 54 will not admit of such an interpretation. We have already taken a view that the consequences of the amount of capital gains or difference between amount spent for purchase of house and the total amount of capital gains not being deposited in the specified account in the case of Humayun Suleman Merchant (2016 (9) TMI 70 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT). We find no reason to take a different view in the facts and circumstances of the present case. - Decided in favour of revenue Tribunal infringed the principles of natural justice in not providing an opportunity to rebut the conclusion of the Tribunal based on circular no.495 - Held that:- It becomes evident that the appellant had argued his appeal entirely. Therefore we believe that if the appeal had been decided in favour of the appellant the appellant, he probably may not have considered the procedure followed by the Tribunal as ad-hocism. The Revenue could have possibly objected to the course followed by the Tribunal. In the circumstances we do not find that the Tribunal infringed upon the principles of natural justice in not providing an opportunity to the Appellants to rebut the conclusions described as detrimental. In any event this Court is not in a position to verify whether in fact the contents of the circular were put to the assessee or whether the assessee had dealt with the submissions before the Tribunal. These are matters within knowledge of the Tribunal and if a diligent assessee would have approached the Tribunal for rectification, if he felt there was justification.However, that not having been done, we do not find that the Tribunal can be faulted in present set of facts - Decided in favour of revenue
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