JAYAMALA SUTRAVE,MUMBAI vs. DCIT CEN CIR 24 & 26, MUMBAI

The ground raised by the assessee in this appeal is that the ld. CIT(A) erred in confirming penalty of Rs.71,741/- levied by the AO u/s 271(1)(c) not appreciating the submission that the assessment under consideration was not pursuant to return filed u/s 153A ; that the assessee had filed the return of income u/s 139(1); that there was no addition of income made in the assessment i.e. the returned income had been accepted as the assessed income; that in such circumstances there was no question of concealment of income u/s 271(1)(c) of the Act or under any provisions of the Act and that in view of provisions of section 271AAA the penalty was wrongly initiated and levied by the AO u/s 271(1)(c) of the Act.

A search and seizure action u/s. 132 of the Act was carried out in the case of Transworld Furtichem Pvt. Ltd. group of cases on 11.02.2011 and the assessee was covered in the said action. Pursuant to the search, the assessee filed a return of income declaring total income at Rs.9,26,713/-. In the said return income, the assessee disclosed Rs.5,18,254/- as income under the head ‘income from other sources’. It was explained by the assessee before the Assessing Officer (AO) that the above sum of Rs.5,18,254/- comprises of interest received on savings bank account and loan given for which the details were not readily available. The AO had initiated the penalty proceedings by issuing notice u/s. 271(1)(c) for the reason that the assessee had not given sufficient proof/details of the source of income. The AO also imposed a penalty @ 100% on the income of Rs.5,18,254/- which comes to Rs. 71,741/- as the assessee had not filed an appeal before the ld. CIT(A).

None appeared on behalf of the appellant.

The ld. DR supported the order of the ld. CIT(A) upholding the penalty of Rs.71,741/- levied by the AO u/s. 271(1)(c) of the Act.

We have perused the relevant material on record and heard the ld. DR. We find that the assessee filed her return of income for the AY 2011-12 on 27.04.2012 declaring total income at Rs.9,26,713/-. The return of income was processed u/s 143(1) of the Act. After issuing notice u/s 143(2) and 142(1) of the Act, the AO made an assessment u/s 143(3) on 20.03.2013 accepting the returned income of Rs.9,26,713/- disclosed by the assessee. Thus from the assessment order passed by the AO, it is evident that the assessment in the present case has not been made u/s 153A of the Act. There is provision in the Act for filing belated return of income u/s 139(4) of the Act. Also we have mentioned hereinabove that the AO has accepted the returned income of Rs.9,26,713/- shown by the assessee. So this is not the case where one can infer concealment of income or inaccurate particulars of income. Therefore, the penalty of Rs.71,741/- imposed by the AO u/s 271(1)(c) of the Act is deleted.

In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed. प�रणामतः �नधा�रती क� अपील क� जाती है । Order pronounced in the open court on November 11 , 2016