TMI Blog2005 (7) TMI 295X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to the notice under s. 143(2) of the Act. 2. The assessee-company is a pioneer in publishing scientific, technical, medical books and journals. It has appointed several distributors for selling its books inIndiaand has also opened a liaison office on1st Feb., 1998, after obtaining approval from the RBI. Notice under s. 148 of the Act was issued to the assessee on18th Dec, 2002in response to which the assessee filed its return of income declaring nil income on14th Feb., 2003. As mentioned by the AO in his order, notices under ss. 143(2) and 142(1) were issued on various dates and the assessment was completed under s. 143(3) of the Act on31st March, 2004, at a total income of Rs. 1,19,99,335. 3. Before the CIT(A), the assessee had, by way ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Dec., 2003,29th March, 2004and31st March, 2004. The assessee also filed affidavits of S/Shri Rohit Kapoor and Sanjiv Goswami to this effect. The reply of the assessee and the affidavits were forwarded to the AO for his comments. It was stated by the AO that the inspection was not carried out in his presence nor there was any order-sheet entry regarding the date on which the inspection was carried out. It was further stated that a copy of the notice under s. 143(2) dt.4th Nov., 2003for each of the assessment years is available on record which were sent by registered post. The CIT(A) considered the reports of the AO and held that since a copy of the notice dt.4th Nov., 2003was available on record and since the registered post acknowledgement ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to the learned Departmental Representative, both the notices along with the questionnaire were issued on4th Nov., 2003. The office copy on the record of the Department shows that the notice was issued and the postal acknowledgement is also on record. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the assessee did not receive the notice under s. 143(2). It was further submitted that while providing various details pursuant to the notice under s. 142(1), the assessee did not raise any objection about the non-receipt of notice under s. 143(2). With regard to the order-sheet entries, it was submitted that sometimes certain entries were not recorded therein. In fact, even the notices which are admitted by the assessee do not find a mention in th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... her both the notices were placed in one envelope or not. This is for the reason that this fact, by its very nature, is unverifiable. Therefore, only an inference can be drawn with regard to this fact. In this connection, there are two factual aspects which need to be taken into consideration. Firstly, prior to the issue of notice dt. 3rd March, 2004 under s. 143(2) of the Act, all the correspondence originating from the assessee refers only to the notice under s. 142(1) of the Act. By way of illustration, we refer to the letter dt.18th Dec., 2003. Another letter is dt.14th Nov., 2003, which was placed before us on the date of the hearing. It can normally be presumed that if both the notices had been received by the assessee, while respondin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ce under s. 143(2) of the Act. When this fact was put to the AO by the CIT(A), the response of the AO was that the inspection was not carried out in his presence and that there is no entry in the order-sheet regarding the date on which the inspection was carried out. This not only speaks volumes about the maintenance of the official record of the proceedings by the Department but it also reflects as to how in a tacit manner, the AO is admitting the fact of inspection having been carried out by the assessee. The two factual aspects discussed above compel us to infer that along with the notice dt.4th Nov., 2003issued under s. 142(1), notice under s. 143(2) was not placed in the envelope. Further, the fact that the assessee carried out an insp ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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