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2019 (8) TMI 16 - HC - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - validity of notice u/s 148 - Eligibility of reason to believe - HELD THAT:- As our Court in the case of Hindustan Lever Ltd. V/s. R.B. Wadkar [2004 (2) TMI 41 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT] has made it clear, the reasons, with a view to assess their reasonableness, are required to be read as they are recorded by the Assessing Officer; no substitution or deletion is permissible; no addition can be made to those reasons; and no inference can be allowed to be drawn based on these reasons which is not recorded. It is for the assessing officer to form an opinion as to whether there was escapement of income from assessment and whether such escapement occurred from failure on the part of the assessee to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for his assessment for the concerned assessment year; and it is for him to put his opinion on record in black and white. The reasons recorded must disclose his mind and they should be self explanatory. The reasons recorded cannot be supplemented by the time the matter reaches the Court by filing of any affidavit or making any oral submission. In the premises, it is not open to the revenue to seek to sustain the re-opening notice on a new reason, namely, dis-allowance of deduction of expenditure since the whole activity was illegal. In the premises, the impugned notice issued by the Assessing Officer under Section 148 of the Act cannot be sustained and must be set aside.
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