9911796707
TMI Blog2025 (2) TMI 711X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . ................. As per the information available with the department you have made unexplained investment in immovable property of Rs. 2,50,00,000/- and the information available with the department is as under:- The information disseminated in the insight portal is as under:- Actionable year Result Type Result description Result value Income represented by Remarks 2019-20 Unexplained investment/payment Unexplained investment in immovable properties 2,50,00,000/- 2. Information available with this office under risk management strategy formulated by CBDT suggest that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment in the case of assessee during the relevant assessment year. The insight portal information is attached herewith in PDF file. 3. You are requested to submit your reply with documentary evidence in compliance to above notice by 22.3.2023. The reply is to be submitted on mail of this office or by speed post. 4. Your reply, if any, will be considered before passing order u/s 148A(d) of the IT Act and before issuance of notice u/s 148 of the IT Act. In case reply is not submitted before the given period, the order u/s 148A(d) shall be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ith allegation, a list of properties values 256 Crs were also available......." 5. As we view the aforesaid, it is manifest that the charge which ultimately came to be laid against the writ petitioner did not stand confined to investments in immovable properties but also inextricably stretched to the possession of luxury cars. The respondents also allege that the petitioner facilitates the investment of undisclosed money on behalf of officials, bureaucrats and judicial officers. None of the allegations which are noticed above were even remotely mentioned or alluded to in the original notice under Section 148A (b). 6. Faced with the denial of the petitioner of having undertaken any transaction pertaining to immovable property in the AY in question, the Assessing Officer [AO] has ultimately observed as follows: "6. The reply of the assessee is considered carefully and but found not tenable in the present case as per facts and circumstances of the case. It is stated that in his reply the assessee accepted all the properties belonging to either himself or his relatives, except five properties. The assessee has denial any purchase of property during A.Y. 2019-20. The assessee was as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... SCC OnLine Del 5048: "6. Our Court in Commissioner of Income Tax-II v. Living Media India Ltd. had pertinently observed that additional reasons cannot be provided or recorded by the Assessing Officer subsequent to the issuance of a notice under Section 148 of the Act. We deem it apposite to quote the following passage from that decision:- "13. With regard to the additional reasons which were recorded subsequent to the issuance of notice under section 148 of the said Act, we have already observed that this could not have been done by the Assessing Officer. The validity of the proceedings initiated upon a notice under section 148 of the said Act would have to be judged from the stand point of the reasons which existed at the point of time when the section 148 notice was issued. The additional reasons cannot be provided or recorded subsequent to the issuance of notice under section 148. It is, of course, open to the Assessing Officer, if some other information comes within his knowledge to issue another notice under section 148 for different reasons. But that is not the case here. On the basis of the very same notice issued under section 148, the Assessing Officer has recorded add ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Officer should have finally ascertained that income has escaped assessment. The nature of the jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer which was dealt with by the judgment of the two learned judges of the Supreme Court in Rajesh Jhaveri's case was revisited in a decision of three learned judges in CIT v. Kelvinator of India Ltd., (2010) 320 ITR 561 (SC). The Supreme Court has held that though after April 1, 1989, a wider power has been conferred upon the Assessing Officer to reopen an assessment, the power cannot be exercised on the basis of a mere change of opinion nor is it in the nature of a review. The Supreme Court has laid down the test of whether there is tangible material on the basis of which the Assessing Officer has come to the conclusion that there is an escapement of income. The Supreme Court held thus (page 564): "However, one needs to give a schematic interpretation to the words 'reason to believe' failing which, we are afraid, section 147 would give arbitrary powers to the Assessing Officer to reopen assessments on the basis of 'mere change of opinion', which cannot be per se reason to reopen. We must also keep in mind the conceptual difference between power to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e is not an FII and that the provisions of section 115AD would not be attracted, the Assessing Officer persisted in rejecting the objections to the reopening of the assessment. In the order disposing of the objections which were raised by the assessee, the succeeding Assessing Officer has clearly attempted to improve upon the reasons which were originally communicated to the assessee. The validity of the notice reopening the assessment under section 148 has to be determined on the basis of the reasons which are disclosed to the assessee. Those reasons constitute the foundation of the action initiated by the Assessing Officer of reopening the assessment. Those reasons cannot be supplemented or improved upon subsequently. While disposing of the objections of the assessee, the Assessing Officer has purported to state that the assessee had filed only sketchy details in its return filed in the electronic form. As we have noted earlier, the relevant provisions expressly make it clear that no document or report can be filed with the return of income in the electronic form. The assessee has an opportunity to do so during the course of the assessment proceedings if a notice is issued under ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
