TMI Blog1994 (11) TMI 168X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e expenses. The Assessing Officer not being satisfied with the explanation of the assessee made addition of Rs. 1,50,000, observing as under : " It is neither believable nor conceivable that in the marriage of the daughter of the Managing Director of a company executing civil projects over Rs. 100 crores in Libya the only expenses was of a reception at Hotel Taj Palace. No other expenses on clothes, jewellery, presents to in-laws, reception at home and lighting at house were incurred and can any girl belonging to the status and standing of the assessee be married without customary presents from parents. The assessee is not forthright. The assessee wants us to believe that apart from his father no one else, himself, his wife, brother, etc. have spent any amounts on the marriage. It is not believable. The assessee did not furnish the address of her daughter-in-laws to shut out any enquiries from them. The assessee is a man of means is stating the obvious. On 31-12-1983 the company has debited to his account Rs. 50,000 as amount for daughter's capitalisation fees for engineering College. The question, therefore, arises if affectionating doing father can spend Rs. 50,000 for admissi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 's wife, she stated, "I gave her two sets and eight bangles". Therefore, when she clearly stated "I gave", how it can be considered that the assessee made expenditure, which can be added under section 69(c) ; (vii) He relied upon the decisions of the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in the case of Uganda Industries Co. v. CIT [1986] 158 ITR 567, and also of the Hon'ble Allahabad High Court in the case of Ashok Kumar Rastogi [1991] 100 CTR (All.) 204. 6. On the other hand, Mr. Suman Gupta, learned DR relied upon the orders of the authorities below. He submitted that to perform marriage of daughter is the liability of father. Therefore, it cannot be believed that the father has not incurred any expenditure on the marriage of his daughter. He also submitted that even if it is presumed that any other person has incurred the expenditure on the marriage of the appellant's daughter, then it was for the appellant to state so, that such and such person has incurred so much expenditure and to lead evidence in support of such a statement. He submitted that the assessee has not furnished any details before the Assessing Officer, in spite of the specific queries raised in this respect. The assess ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ade addition therefor as no source from where such expenditure was incurred was explained by the assessee. 9. To appreciate the arguments of both the sides, it would be relevant to reproduce the query made by the Assessing Officer and the reply given by the assessee. Query Nos. 14 and 15 of Assessing Officer's letter dated 11/ 13 August, 1987 are relevant which are as under :-- " 14. What was the expenditure incurred during the marriage of your daughter. Please furnish the break-up of expenses as under :-- (a) Reception at Hotel Taj Palace. (b) Two sets of jewellery and eight bangles. (c) Clothes. (d) Presents to in-laws of your daughter. (e) Dowry. " 15. What is the address of your son-in-law ? Reply thereto was given in para 11 of the assessee's reply which is as under : -- ' 11. The expenditure incurred on the marriage of the assessee's daughter being the amount paid to Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi for the reception of Barat has duly been debited to his account with the company. The copy whereof is already available on the records. Should you, however, require any copy of the same, the same can be fumished'. " In a subsequent letter dated 15-2-1988, the ass ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uch was saving and gifts, secondly, there is no evidence of family savings because as per the Assessing Officer, the withdrawal for household expenses was quite inadequate and a separate addition was made therefor, thirdly, no details of gift received were given and lastly, whatever the gift would have been received it would have been received only at the time of marriage while the major part of expenditure for marriage is incurred prior to marriage. The assessee did not give the name and address of the bridegroom probably to shut out further probe by the Assessing Officer. 10. In view of the above, it can be inferred that the assessee did not give the required information, which he being father of the bride is supposed to possess. It is not the case of the assessee that he was not present at the occasion of the marriage. We agree with the learned DR that when the facts of expenditure on marriage were in the knowledge of the assessee, it was for the assessee to lead such facts. If the assessee gave evasive reply to the queries raised, the Assessing Officer could draw an adverse inference regarding suppression of material facts. In such circumstances the Assessing Officer could ta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t of a third party, and second, in the statement, she gave some details relating to the marriage of her daughter which is supposed to be in assessee's possession also, being father of the bride. 13. The assessee has relied upon the decision of Uganda Industries Co.'s case. In this case, the assessee had taken loan from the Bank by hypothecation of its goods. The Assessing Officer found discrepancy in the stock of cotton seed as shown in the books of the assessee and as was evident from bank loan. The addition made was upheld by ITAT. On reference it was held :-- " . . . that even assuming that further advances could have been secured by hypothecating unginned cotton lying in stock with the assessee, this single circumstance would not by itself lead to the inference that the cotton seeds which had been hypothecated to the bank were not accounted for. Hence, no addition could be made to the income of the assessee for the assessment year 1970-71. " 14. Another case relied upon by the assessee is of Ashok Kumar Rastogi's case. In this case at the time of search of assessee's premises some documents were found. On the basis of those documents, the Assessing Officer worked out the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... us of invoking the principles of the Evidence Act in proceedings before them, they were prevented from doing so. (ii) That all that section 110 of the Evidence Act, 1872 did was to embody a salutary principle of common law jurisprudence, viz., where a person was found in possession of anything, the onus of proving that he was not its own, was on that person. This principle could be attracted to a set of circumstances that satisfy its condition and was applicable to taxation proceedings. (iii) That the expression 'income' as used in section 69A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 had a wide meaning which meant anything which came in or resulted in gain. (iv) That, on the facts, a legitimate inference could be drawn that the petitioner had income which he had invested in purchasing the wrist watches and their value could be deemed to be his income by virtue of section 69A. " The DR also relied upon the decision in the case of Madan Lal. In this case, the assessee has claimed that he incurred expenditure of Rs. 9,000 on the marriage of his son out of which Rs. 4,000 were met by gifts and Rs. 5,000 out of withdrawal. The Assessing Officer rejected the claim of the assessee on the groun ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e consists of the assessee, his wife and three children. The month-wise withdrawals shown by the assessee were Rs. 2,000 P.M. As per statement of assessee's wife recorded at the time of search, the Assessing Officer found two children of the assessee studying outside Delhi. The assessee's wife stated that Rs. 4,000 P.M. is sent to the children by her. Accordingly, the Assessing Officer made the addition of Rs. 42,000. On appeal the CIT(A) upheld the addition observing as under :-- " 4.2 Learned counsel, present before me, has been unable to point out as to why a categorical statement of the appellant's wife regarding the household expenses be disregarded by the Income-tax Officer. Once the wife of the appellant, who admittedly runs the household, gives a statement the ITO is fully justified in making his estimate of household expenses on her testimony. 4.3 Apart from the evidence of Smt. Davinder Kaur it is further to be noted that the household expenses as shown by the appellant at Rs. 32,213 are in any case grossly understated particularly keeping in view the fact that appellant's two children are studying in Bangalore and also looking to the status of the appellant as well a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed 10% of G.T.I. it has to be restricted to 10% of G.T.I. the question of its restriction to 10% of G.T.I. does not arise. He filed before us the computation showing working of ALV as under :-- Municipal value 8,910 Less : House Tax (-)1,246 -------------------- 7,664 Less : 1/6th for repairs (-)1,277 -------------------- 6,387 -------------------- Net income for 8 months 4,258 1/3rd share of each co-owner. 1,419 22. We have carefully gone through the orders of the authorities below and arguments advanced. We find that as per computation of income, copy of which is filed before us, the assessee himself has shown income from house property, estimating the ALV at 10% of G.T.I. The Assessing Officer also took the ALV of the 10% of G.T.I.The Assessing Officer has not at all considered, what is actual ALV and whether it exceeded 10% of G.T.I. or not. Therefore, we deem it proper to set aside this issue to the file of the Assessing Officer, with the direction that he shall compute ALV of the self-occupied property. If the ALV worked out, will be below 10% of G.T.I. than actual ALV shall be taken and if it exceeded 10% of G.T.I. then the same shall be restricte ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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