VENKATESAN RAVI,CHENNAI vs. ACIT NON CORPORATE CIRCLE-7(1), CHENNAI

PDF · subscribers
ITA 2388/CHNY/2019Status: DisposedITAT Chennai02 December 2022AY 2011-124 pages

In favour of the Revenue: the assessee's appeal was dismissed. From the AI summary of this appeal.

AI SummaryDismissed

What did the Tribunal hold?

The Tribunal upheld the Assessing Officer's action of reopening the case under Section 147, stating that Section 153C applies only when incriminating documents 'belonging' to the assessee are seized. Since no such documents were found, the assessment under Section 147 was deemed in order.

What were the facts?

The assessee's appeal challenges the assessment order passed under Section 144 read with Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, instead of Section 153C. The reopening was based on information obtained during post-search proceedings in another case, concerning unaccounted consultation fees collected by doctors.

What were the issues?

The primary issue was whether the assessment proceedings should have been initiated under Section 153C instead of Section 147, given the nature of the information used for reopening.

Which sections of the Income-tax Act were involved?

Section 144,Section 147,Section 148,Section 153C

AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below

Cases cited in this judgment(1)Show list

Detected automatically from the text. Citations are also linked where they appear in the judgment. The count shows how many other judgments on BharatTax rely on the same authority.

Before: Shri V. Durga Rao & Shri G. Manjunatha

Hearing: 29.11.2022Pronounced: 02.12.2022

O R D E R

PER V. DURGA RAO, JUDICIAL MEMBER:

1.

This appeal filed by the assessee is directed against the order of the ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) 7, Chennai dated 25.06.2019 relevant to the assessment year 2011-12.

2.

The only ground raised

by the assessee before the Tribunal is that “the Assessing Officer ought to have been passed assessment order under section 153C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 [“Act” in short] and not under section 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Act. The issue raised before the Tribunal by the assessee has also been raised before the ld. CIT(A). After considering the submissions of the assessee, the ld. CIT(A) has observed and held as under: On perusal of the assessment order, statement of facts, grounds of appeal and written submissions, the appeal is adjudicated as under: The 7 grounds of appeal are condensed into 3 grounds viz.,

1. Legality of reopening u/s 147 of the Act instead of u/s 153C of the IT Act.

2. On merits, whether AO was justified in arriving at the undisclosed income by applying the uniform rate of ₹.500/- per patient.

3. Determination of tax and interest without considering TDS credit as per Form 26AS. a) Issue of notice being issued u/s 147 of the Act and not u/s 153C thereby raising questions of legality of the assessment proceedings. Though both provisions of the Act, viz: Section 147 and Section 153C empower the A.O. to assessment and re-assessment the income escaped from assessment, both section are dealing with different situations. Section 147 comes into operation when the A.O. believes that there is escapement of income chargeable to tax, either from the return already filed or through some external material evidence which come to his knowledge, which shows the escapement of income. Section 153C would come into operation however, in a situation where incriminating documents were seized in the case of a search in another case. In a recent case of CIT vs Sinhgad Technical Education Society [84 Taxmann.com 290(Sc)]2017 Hon'ble Supreme court has held that proceedings u/s 153C of the Act can be initiated against a person only if the seized materials "Belonged" to that person. It is not sufficient for the Revenue to urge that the seized document "pertains to the person". Supreme Court, while affirming the judgment of the Bombay High Court, approved the decision of the Gujarat High Court in Kamlesh bhai Dharamshi Bhai Patel vs CIT-Ill, (2013)263 CTR(Guj)362, that a document seized should "belong to a person other than the person referred to" in Sec 153A of the Act. I find that from the records obtained from the A.O.'s office, the information pertaining to "unaccounted consultation fees collected" by doctors was obtained in the course of Post-Search proceedings in the case of Apollo Main Hospitals and thereafter, forwarded to the concerned assessing officers for further necessary action. Therefore this is not a case where incriminating documents "belonging" to the appellant were found in the Search premises. Hence, I have no hesitation in upholding the A.O.'s action in re-opening the case u/s 147 of the Act, which is held to be in order and as per law. This ground challenging A.O.'s re-opening u/s 147 of the Act therefore stands dismissed.

3.

We have heard both the sides, perused the materials available on record and gone through the orders of the authorities below and find that the assessee’s case was reopened after the search conducted in the Apollo main hospital. In the course of search proceedings, no incriminating material was found and based on the overall information available to the Department in respect of unaccounted consultation fee collected by the Doctors, the Assessing Officer was directed to verify in respect of the Doctors working in Apollo hospital and take necessary action. Under these facts and circumstances of the case, the Assessing Officer has reopened the assessment under section 147 of the Act and issued notice under section 148 of the Act and thereafter, the assessment was completed under section 144 r.w.s. 147 of the Act dated 24.12.2018. On appeal, the ld. CIT(A) has rightly confirmed the assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer. Thus, we find no reason to interfere with the order passed by the ld. CIT(A). Accordingly, the ground raised by the assessee is dismissed.

4.

In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is dismissed.

Order pronounced on 2nd December, 2022 at Chennai.

More judgments on Section 147

All 49,210 judgments and leading authorities on Section 147 →

Recent GST High Court judgments

Search GST case law →