2017 (8) TMI 961 - HC - Income Tax

Reopening of assessment - reasons to believe - bogus purchases - non-supply of documents on the ground of confidentiality - Held that:- What is required is reason to believe but not the established fact of escapement of income. At the stage of issuance of notice, the only question is whether there was relevant material on which a reasonable person could have formed the requisite belief. Whether material would conclusively prove escapement of income was not the concern at that stage. This is so because the formation of the belief is within the realm of the subjective satisfaction of the Assessing Officer. At this stage therefore, what we have on record and emerging from the reasons recorded is that there is strong prima facie material to suggest that the purchases shown to have been made by the assessee from M/s. Shiyon Enterprises were bogus.

The fact that the assessee's sales and purchases came up for scrutiny during the original assessment would be of no consequence since now the Assessing Officer relies on material which was not part of the assessment proceedings and which material was provided by the investigation wing unearthed during the course of investigation in case of Shri Chandrakant Patel. - Decided against the assessee.