Home Case Index All Cases Income Tax Income Tax + HC Income Tax - 2021 (7) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2021 (7) TMI 312 - HC - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - respondent had received the information from the office of DDIT (Inv.) Unit-1(3), Ahmedabad that the petitioner - company was identified as one of the beneficiaries of the accommodation entries unearthed during the course of search proceedings - seizure of unaccounted cash along with the incriminating digital as well as documentary evidences - HELD THAT:- AO had received specific information from the said investigating wings outlining the systemic evasion of taxes by the petitioner and others, and had therefore reason to believe that the petitioner had sold scrips to Veronica Production Limited / Dhvanil Chemicals Ltd., which were penny stock during financial year 2011-12. Such satisfaction arrived at by the AO being subjective in nature and based on the fresh material for coming to the prima facie conclusion that the petitioner had failed to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for his assessment for the A.Y. 2012-13, it could not be said that the respondent had initiated the proceedings under section 147 of the Act on the basis of incorrect facts or on the basis of borrowed belief of the Investigation Wings at Ahmedabad and Mumbai, as sought to be submitted by the learned advocate Mr. R.K. Patel for the petitioner. The Court also does not agree with the submission made by the learned advocate Mr. Patel that the respondent could not have reopened the assessment of the petitioner under section 147/148 of the said Act after the scrutiny assessment having been undertaken by the Assessing Officer under section 143(3) of the said Act for the A.Y. 2012-13. AO having arrived at his subjective satisfaction based on additional fresh material placed before him that the petitioner had not fully and truly disclosed all the material facts necessary for his assessment for the relevant assessment year and prima facie his income chargeable to tax had escaped assessment, he was fully justified in initiating the proceedings under section 147/148 In this case, the Assessing Officer has recorded the reasons in detail and the objections raised by the petitioner have also been dealt with by him in detail vide the impugned order. It may further be noted that no such contention that the Principal Commissioner had granted sanction without application of mind or without assigning any reason, was taken up by the petitioner before the respondent authority in the objections filed by him, nonetheless the respondent has mentioned in the impugned order that his satisfaction was duly approved by the CIT-4, Ahmedabad vide his letter / approval dated 30.03.2019. Again in response to the said contention raised in the petition, the respondent has contended in his affidavit-in- reply that the case of the petitioner was reopened after obtaining the sanction from the Pr. CIT-4, Ahmedabad as required by section 151 of the said Act and that the Pr. CIT had approved the notice after appreciating the facts and after duly applying his mind. The petitioner has chosen not to controvert the said submission in the affidavit-in-rejoinder filed by him. There is also no merit in the submission of Mr. Patel that the petitioner was assessed under section 115JB and that the assessee was already paying more tax under section 115JB than the income tax liability arising under the normal provisions of the Act. As rightly observed by the respondent in the impugned order disposing of the objections, whether the income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment or not, could not be considered at this stage and no conclusive opinion could be rendered at this point of time when the assessment / reassessment has not even started. - Decided against assessee.
|