R K DREAMLAND,RAJKOT vs. ACIT, CC-1, RAJKOT, RAJOKT
Before: DR. ARJUN LAL SAINI & DR. DINESH MOHAN SINHA
Per, Bench:
Captioned appeals filed by the Assessee and Revenue, pertaining to Assessment Years 2016-17 to 2021-22, are directed against the orders passed under section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as “the ITA No. 555 to 563 & 564/Rjt/2024
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Act”) by National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi/Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), which in turn arise out of separate assessment orders passed by the Assessing Officer, u/s 143(3) r.w.s. 147 of the Income Tax Act,
1961. 2.Since, the issues involved in all the appeals are common and identical, therefore, these appeals have been heard together and are being disposed of by this consolidated order.
Although, these appeals filed by the assessee and appeals filed by the revenue, contain multiple ground of appeals. However, at the time of hearing we have carefully perused all the grounds raised by the assessee and revenue. We find that most of the grounds raised by the assessee and revenue are either academic in nature or contentious in nature. However, to meet the end of justice, we confine ourselves to the core of the controversy and main grievances of the assessee and revenue as well. With this background, we summarize and concise the grounds raised by the assessee and revenue, as follows:
(i) The Id. Commissioner of Income-tax(Appeals)-11, Ahmedabad erred on facts as also in law in dismissing ground of appeal related to validity of notice issued u/s 148 of the income tax Act, 1961. That on facts as also in law, the proceedings-initiated u/s. 147 of the Act is invalid and assessment finalized on such invalid initiation deserves to be quashed and may kindly be quashed.
(This is assessee's ground No. 2 in ITA No. 555/RJT/2024 for AY 2016-17, This is assessee's ground No. 2 in ITA No. 556/RJT/2024 for AY 2017-18, This is assessee's ground No. 2 in ITA No. 557/RJT/2024 for AY 2018-19, This is assessee's ground No. 2
in ITA No. 558/RJT/2024 for AY 2019-20 and, This is assessee's ground No. 2 in ITA
No. 559/RJT/2024 for AY 2020-21)
(ii) The ld. CIT(A)erred on facts as also in law in retaining addition of Rs. 83,02,640/- by estimating profit at 16% of so called on money receipt. The addition made is bad in law as also on facts therefore the same may kindly be deleted. Alternatively, the addition made by estimating rate of profit is very much higher side and therefore the same may kindly be directed to be reduced and oblige.
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(This is assessee's ground No. 3 & 4 in ITA No. 555/RJT/2024 for AY 2016-17, This is assessee's ground No. 3 & 4 in ITA No. 556/RJT/2024 for AY 2017-18, This is assessee's ground No. 3 & 4 in ITA No. 557/RJT/2024 for AY 2018-19, This is assessee's ground
No. 3 & 4 in ITA No. 558/RJT/2024 for AY 2019-20, This is assessee's ground No. 3 &
4 in ITA No. 559/RJT/2024 for AY 2020-21)
(This is also in revenue 's ground no 1 in ITA No. 563/RJT/2024 for AY 2016-17 and,
This is revenue 's ground no 1 in ITA No. 564/RJT/2024 for AY 2017-18)
(iii) The Ld CIT (A) has erred in directing the AO to tax the unaccounted profit in the year in which sale deed is executed instead of the year in which the on-money has been received, ignoring that the same is not in accordance with accounting principles as per
ICDS-3 applicable to Real Estate Developers and also not appreciating that the income on account of undisclosed on-money receipt was required to be assessed in the year of receipt.
(This is revenue's ground no. 2 in ITA No. 563/RJT/2024 for AY 2016-17, This is revenue's ground no. 2 in ITA No 564/RJT/2024 for AY 2017-18)
The relevant material facts, as culled out from the material on record, are as follows. The assessee is a Firm engaged in Building completion. As per the Income-tax Return for AY 2017-18 filed on 28.09.2017 declaring therein taxable income of Rs.59,78,273/-. A Search, Seizure and Survey action was carried out by the office of DDIT (Inv.), Unit-1, Rajkot in the case of leading real estate builders of Rajkot and their key associates on 24.08.2021. Four different groups were covered in the operation. All the four groups are in the business of real estate and are mainly concentrated in and around Rajkot. A total of forty-three (43) premises were covered, out of which 32 premises were covered under section 132 of the Income Tax Act 1961 and the other 11 premises were covered u/s 133A of the Income Tax Act 1961. The premises covered were a mix of residential and business premises of their related entities, their family members, key associates and employees. RK group is headed and managed by Shri Sarvanand Sadhuram Sonwani and his extended family. The Sonwani family is a joint unit for the purpose of business. RK Group is developing multiple projects in the nature of Commercial, Residential and Industrial plotting projects. Important family members, offices, key associates and employees were also covered in the search
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and survey operation to get hold of important incriminating evidences. In the RK
Group the main persons/partners were Sonwani family. Some projects of RK
Group were developed with other groups also. The group was mainly involved in taking on-money/unaccounted cash on selling of units in its projects and giving on money on purchasing of the land. The data of on-money/unaccounted cash was being maintained in a very systematic manner in Miracle file. In Miracle files mainly unaccounted transaction has been entered with some banking transaction as well. The main/key person of the group is Shri Sarvan and Sadhuram Sonwani on whose directions and guidance the business activities are carried out. Shri
Girish Vanjani was maintaining the accounts of the RK Group (including parallel unaccounted cash transactions) at the instruction of Shri Sarvanand Sonwani. The premise of Shri Girish Vanjani was also covered during the search action.
5. It can be seen that Shri Girish Vanjani has categorically stated that he does the work of accounting as per the instructions of Shri Sarvanand Sonwani. Even Shri
Sarvanand Sonwani has accepted (in his statements recorded u/s 131 of The Act at the residential premise of Girish Vanjani on 27.08.2021) that Shri
GirishVanjani does the work of accounting as per his instructions. Thus, Shri
Girish Vanjani is a key employee and accountant of the R K Group is an admitted and confirmed fact. During the course of search and seizure action at the residential premise of Shri Girish Vanjani, Pen Drives and Hard Discs were recovered. Forensic Mirror Imaging (Digital Data Backup) of these devices was taken and the same were seized. The backup contained key accounting files
(unaccounted transactions and some accounted transactions) of the entire group in a very systematic manner. The accounts of 1) Sale of units 2) Cost of lands3)
Expenses incurred on various projects and other miscellaneous transactions made by RK Group members with various counter parties were maintained in accounting software known as MIRACLE. Details of sale of units maintained in various excel sheets were also found and seized from the premise of Shri Girish
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Vanjani. Multiple miracle files have been found from the digital data that has been imaged and seized during the search operation. Many miracle files found are duplicate copies of each other or either not fully updated. Some Miracle files are more updated than the other. From the plethora of Miracle files that have been found during the post search analysis, 3 files have been isolated which when studied together cover the financial transactions of the group, The details of the three Miracle files as under –
Sr. No.
Name of the file
1
DIVYARAJ & CO. (01 08 2009 to 30 06 2016)
2
Divyaraj& Co (01 07 2006 to 31 03 2009)
3
RK World (01 04 2009 to ...)
Apart from the above, various documents in the form of loose-papers, excel sheets etc. have also been recovered and seized during the search operation from the premises of the group members highlighting various kind of financial transactions accounted as well as unaccounted. All the data collected and seized during the search and survey operation has been perused and co-related with the actual transactions made by the group persons and entities. The financial transactions pertaining to sale and purchase of various kinds of properties as seized in the form of Digital Data like and in the form of Hard Data were also compared and corroborated with the documentary evidences and responses received from the Sub-