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TMI Blog2015 (5) TMI 429X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nder section 158BC of the Act. The appellant submitted his returns on December 27, 1997, covering the block period from 1987-88 to 1997-98 declaring nil income. It was also mentioned that regular assessment of the assessment year 1998-99 has not been completed and that there was still time to file the returns for the assessment year 1997-98. The Assessing Officer passed an order dated March 22, 2001, holding that there are three items of undisclosed income of the appellant in relation to the block period. The first is an amount of Rs. 7,50,000 said to have been paid to Yeturi General Finance, the second is a sum of Rs. 6,73,000 used for purchased of land at Guttala Begumpet and the third is a sum of Rs. 2,20,000 representing the value of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... answers and at no point of time, the appellant has either retracted from the statement or stated that the same was recorded under any pressure or threat or coercion. He also submits that the judgment of this court in I. T. T. A. No. 112 of 2003 (CIT v. Naresh Kumar Agarwal [2014] 369 ITR 171 (T&AP)) is in relation to a case, where the assessee retracted from the statement under section 132(4) of the Act and that the same does not apply to the facts of the present case. The search that was conducted on March 4, 1997, led to the block assessment against the appellant covering the period from 1987-88 to 1997-98. Though the appellant submitted the returns showing nil income, the Assessing Officer conducted a detailed enquiry with reference to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent, even if it is done when the search was in progress. Hence, there is a basic infirmity in the very foundation of the case, upon which the appellant sought to rest their block assessment vis-a-vis the respondent." Two other important aspects in that case are that (a) the statement was recorded long after the search was conducted ; and (b) the assessee retracted from the statement. That is not the case here. The search and recording of statement have taken place simultaneously and the appellant did not complain of any coercion much less did he retract from the statement. The Assessing Officer extracted in detail, the statement recorded from the appellant during the course of search. For example, questions Nos. 13 and 17 and the answers t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... unt, there is nothing on record to disclose that the amounts mentioned in the statement were explained in any other manner. Heavy reliance is placed by the learned counsel for the appellant on certain observations made by the Tribunal, which are to the effect that no material was recovered during the course of search. A statement of that nature cannot be taken as reflecting any undisputed set of facts. The circumstances under which such an observation was made are not immediately before this court. Once the questions were put to the appellant, on the basis of the seized documents, which in turn were assigned separate numbers, there is no way the appellant can disown the same. Further, this is not a case, where the block assessment is based ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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