TMI Blog2015 (9) TMI 895X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... viding reasonable opportunity of hearing to the assessee. - Decided in favour of assessee for statistical purposes. - ITA No s.1611 to 1614/PN/2013 - - - Dated:- 31-8-2015 - SUSHMA CHOWLA AND SHRI PRADIP KUMAR KEDIA, JJ. For The Appellant Shri Neelesh Khandelwal For The Respondent Shri B.C. Malakar ORDER PER SUSHMA CHOWLA, JM: All the appeals filed by the assessee are against the consolidated order of CIT(A)-III, Pune, dated 23.07.2013 relating to assessment years 2000-01 to 2003-04 against respective orders passed under section 143(3) r.w.s. 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short the Act ). 2. This bunch of four appeals filed by the same assessee relating to same issue were heard together and are being disposed of by this consolidated order for the sake of convenience. 3. The preliminary issue raised in all the appeals is against the invoking of provisions of section 147 of the Act and consequent re-assessment order passed under section 143(3) r.w.s. 147 of the Act. All the four appeals involve same issue and in order to adjudicate the same, we refer to the facts in ITA No.1611/PN/2013 relating to assessment year 2000-01. 4. The assessee in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cer in view of the said information, was of the view that there was escapement of income within the meaning of section 147 of the Act. Consequently, notice under section 148 of the Act was issued on 30.03.2007, which was served upon the assessee on the said date itself i.e. 30.03.2007. In response to the said notice, the assessee furnished return of income on 13.04.2007 declaring income of ₹ 64,870/-. Consequent thereto, notice under section 143(2) of the Act was issued to the assessee on 22.11.2007. The assessee requested for copies of documents and also the reasons for issue of notice under section 148 of the Act. The Assessing Officer notes that the partner of the assessee firm Shri Naresh Rathod vide an Affidavit dated 07.12.2007 denied that the information supplied by the Addl. CIT, Central Range 2, Pune belongs to his firm. The Assessing Officer rejecting the Affidavit to be nothing but a self defence to avoid the taxes, was of the view that the unaccounted investment dug out by the Department during the course of search conducted on Soni group on 29.07.2003, was required to be taxed under section 69 of the Act as unexplained investment. The assessee maintained its stan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... be on the same. Simply because the information in the form of ledger account extracts from the seized bundle numbers 99 and 100 was received by the Assessing Officer, it cannot be held as contended by the appellant that the impugned documents belong to the appellant. It cannot also be inferred as contended by the appellant that no action u/s 148 could have been undertaken by the Assessing Officer since the information belonged to the appellant. In fact this stand of the appellant is in complete juxtaposition to his stand as per the affidavit filed during assessment proceedings, a copy of which has been filed during the present proceedings that the name mentioned in the seized document is not his and he has not made any unaccounted investment in money lending. By taking the stand that the information belongs to the appellant, he is indirectly admitting that the unaccounted investment has indeed being made. Be that as it may, for the reasons discussed above, the seized material in the form of ledger extracts containing the appellant s name cannot be held to be belonging to the appellant and therefore, merely constitutes information as held by the various courts for issue of no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... .s. 147 of the Act. The Assessing Officer had received certain information from Addl. CIT, Central Range 2, Pune after search and seizure operations were carried out under section 132 of the Act on the premises of Shri Shriram Soni on 29.07.2003. The Assessing Officer in view of the same, was of the view that there was escapement of income in the hands of the assessee and consequently, the provisions of section 147 of the Act were attracted. The Assessing Officer thereafter, issued notice under section 148 of the Act to the assessee for complying with the same. In response thereto, the assessee furnished return of income declaring same income as was originally filed by the assessee. During the course of assessment proceedings, the assessee had requested for the reasons recorded for reopening the assessment under section 147 of the Act and also the copies of documents relied upon to allege that there was escapement of income in the hands of the assessee. The perusal of assessment order reflects that the Assessing Officer had confronted the assessee with the fact that information was received from the Addl. CIT, Central Range 2, Pune, of investment in money lending business, which wa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... an Affidavit to the effect that it had received a letter from the Assessing Officer intimating the reasons for issue of notice under section 148 of the Act. However, the verbatim copy of the reasons recorded for reopening the assessment proceedings was never supplied to the assessee. 13. Under the provisions of section 147 of the Act, where the Assessing Officer has reason to believe, that any income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment, for any assessment year, then he may subject to the provisions of sections 148 to 153, assess or re-assess such escaped income in the hands of the assessee along with any other income chargeable to tax which comes to his notice subsequently in the course of proceedings. Further, under the proviso to section itself, the time limit for resorting to the provisions of section 147 of the Act are provided. The requirement of the section thus, is for the Assessing Officer to have reason to believe that any income had escaped assessment and for such a belief, it is the requirement of the section that the Assessing Officer shall record reasons for reopening the assessment, pursuant thereto, the Assessing Officer has to serve a notice upon the assesse ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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