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2018 (6) TMI 1056 - HC - Income TaxValidity of reassessment proceedings u/s 148 - addition u/s.68 being the disallowance of claim of gift - Assessment of undisclosed income as a result of search - Held that:- In the present case, some of the gifts were held to be genuine. Allowing the Assessing Officer to examine the same issue in the regular assessment and as in the present case, leaving the possibility of coming to conclusion that the gifts were not genuine, would give rise to two conflicting opinions of the authority of the same rank, and as in the present case, at times by the same officer. This is not a classical case where an assessment previously framed without scrutiny is sought to be reopened, nor it is the case where original assessment was after scrutiny, in which, the Assessing Officer had examined certain issues, expressed his opinion which is the subject matter of reopening bringing the principle of change of opinion. There is yet another supplementary reason why the Revenue, in any case, cannot succeed. If the Revenue's proposition is that the assessee had received on-money through sale of land, which was introduced in the assessees' accounts through non-genuine gifts, the Revenue having attempted to tax the onmoney receipts, could not have taxed the gifts again with the aid of section 68 of the Act. In the present case, we are prepared to proceed on the basis that the assessee had established the identity of the donor and his or her creditworthiness. When however, large amounts are stated to have been gifted, that too by a person having no blood relation with the assessee, the question of genuineness of the gifts would require closer scrutiny. If the assessee does not point out any special occasion for a lavish gift being received from such a source, the burden to establish the genuineness of the gift cannot be lightly taken to have been discharged - the nature of gift and its genuineness would call for case wise scrutiny and the answer would depend on range of facts and attendant circumstances. No single formula of rigid application can be laid down. We are compelled to make these observations because in rather peculiar and somewhat perplexing set of facts, in our opinion, the Tribunal has made superficial observations and mechanically accepted the genuineness of the gifts. It was not open for the Assessing Officer to examine the question of genuineness of the gifts in regular assessment for which he has resorted to reopening of assessments - We express no conclusive opinion on the question of genuineness of the gifts perse.
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