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2020 (4) TMI 283 - AT - Income TaxValidity of initiation of proceedings under section 147/148 - Addition u/s 69 - anonymous complaint - sanction for issuing the notice under section 148 - addition made by the AO on account of understatement of sale consideration based on the report of the DDIT Investigation and Tax Evasion Petition - HELD THAT:- Except translating English version into Hindi vernacular by the AO, there is nothing in the reasons recorded to suggest that the AO has applied his own mind on the information or material as forwarded by the DDIT Investigation vide letter dated 25th March, 2014. It is further pertinent to note that the said communication is not forwarding the facts or information to the AO but it is a sort of opinion and finding given by the DDIT Investigation. DDIT and the AO have given much emphasis on the details of the subsequent sale of the plots by the assessees. However, there is no allegation that those details are not disclosed by the assessee as the same were duly recorded in the books of account and also declared in the return of income filed for the relevant assessment year. Once the sellers as well as the purchasers have denied the allegation of any unaccounted purchase consideration/sale consideration paid or received in their statements recorded under section 131 of the Act, then in the absence of any such fact detected during the investigation carried out by the DDIT, the opinion formed by the DDIT and consequently by the AO is merely based on the allegation made in the complaint which is anonymous complaint as admitted and stated by the DDIT Investigation Reopening is based on a borrowed satisfaction which is also not based on any tangible material but merely on suspicion and allegations made in the anonymous complaint. The DDIT Investigation has stated this fact that the loose papers annexed to the complaint were neither prepared by the assessee nor belonging to the assessee. Therefore, such loose papers prepared by some anonymous person would not constitute a tangible material or incriminating material to form the belief that income assessable to tax has escaped assessment. Sanction accorded by the ld. CIT for issuing the notice under section 148 in the case of the assessee is hyper mechanical. In a series of decisions as relied upon the assessee, the Coordinate Benches of the Tribunal have taken a consistent view that mere signing against a particular column of the format is nothing but a mechanical approval without application of mind. Hence in view of the above facts and circumstances of the case, we hold that the reopening of the assessment is not valid and the same is liable to be quashed. - Decided in favour of assessee.
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