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2020 (5) TMI 652 - AT - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - proper sanction u/s 151 - unexplained deposited cash in his savings bank account - whether the sanction of reopening given by the learned approving authority is proper or not? - HELD THAT: - As decided in SONIA GANDHI, OSCAR FERNANDES, RAHUL GANDHI [2018 (9) TMI 720 - DELHI HIGH COURT] for the purpose of Section 151(1) of the Act, what the Court should be satisfied about is that the Additional CIT has recorded his satisfaction "on the reasons recorded by the Assessing Officer that it is a fit case for the issue of such notice". In the present case, the Court is satisfied that by recording in his own writing the words: "Yes, I am satisfied", the mandate of Section 151(1) of the Act as far as the approval of the Additional CIT was concerned, stood fulfilled - we dismiss the argument of the assessee that there is no proper sanction recorded by the approving authority while sanctioning the action of the learned assessing officer under section 147. AO reopened the case of the assessee for the purpose of verification of the cash deposited in the savings bank account as income escaped - Cash deposit and consequent assessment of sale of agricultural land through which cash has been generated by the assessee is not an independent and unconnected issue. Therefore, respectfully following the ratio laid down by RANBAXY LABORATORIES LIMITED [2011 (6) TMI 4 - DELHI HIGH COURT], we do not find any infirmity in the reopening of the assessment by the learned assessing officer. Therefore, this argument of the learned authorized representative is rejected. In view of this we do not find any infirmity in the action of the Ao in reopening of the case as well as the action of approving authority in granting approval u/s 151 (1) of the act. - Decided against assessee. Capital gain - nature of land sold - capital asset v/s agricultural land - whether the agricultural land sold by the assessee or his HUF is a ‘capital asset’? - Before us, the assessee has submitted a certificate of the tehsildar of village Bhapra dated 29th of December 2017 which certifies that the impugned land sold by the assessee is situated approximately 5.5 km from the municipal limits of Samalkha. The above certificate produced by the assessee before the lower authorities have been rejected for the reason that the tehsildar has mentioned the distance in ‘approximation’ and further there is difference in signature. This issue if examined on verification of the certificate issued by that particular authority, they have stated that the distance is approximately 5.5 km. Definitely the property is not situated within 5 km of the municipality limits of that particular region. Otherwise, that authority would not have certified so - merely because the authority has mentioned ‘approximately”, that does not mean that property is situated within the 5 km of the municipal limits of that particular municipality. It may be possible that distance is higher than 5.5 km. there is no reason to presume that as the distance is certifying in approximation it is definitely within 5 Km of Municipal limits. It is one of the ways of certifying the distance because same is not measured up to last meter. Therefore for this reason rejection of the above certificate is devoid of any merit. Why the certificate is rejected is that the signature on the first page and on the second page are not similar as held by the learned CIT Appeal - On the first page there was no signature of Tehsildar, naturally but only intials. On the second page, Tehsildar has signed and certified approximate distance of the impugned land from the municipal limit of Samalkha. On the second page of the certificate, there is a stamp of ‘Tashdique Shuda” which means “issued”. Therefore, doubting the veracity of the certificate was not proper by the learned CIT Appeal. In fact, if he has any doubt about that he should issue direction to the ld AO to ascertain veracity of the same. We hold that the impugned property is situated beyond 5.5 km of the municipal limit of Samlakha ( Dist. Panipat), therefore the impugned property is not a capital asset. The sale of such land will not make any capital gain liable to be taxed in the hands of the assessee. Therefore on this reason itself, we reverse the orders of the lower authorities and direct the assessing officer to delete the addition. - Decided in favour of assessee partly.
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