Independent evidence is required for penalty; assessment findings alone do not prove concealment or inaccurate particulars.

Penalty under section 15-A(1)(b) cannot rest solely on a finding recorded in assessment proceedings. Penalty proceedings are independent, and the department must prove the ingredients for penalty with independent evidence or surrounding circumstances showing conscious concealment or deliberate furnishing of inaccurate particulars. An assessment order that disbelieves accounts, or an assessee's failure to produce seized material before the revisional authority, is not by itself conclusive proof of concealment. The assessment finding may be relevant, but it must be supported by other material before penalty can be sustained.

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Issues: Whether penalty under section 15-A(1)(b) could be sustained solely on the basis of the finding recorded in the assessment proceedings, without independent evidence or surrounding circumstances establishing concealment or deliberate furnishing of inaccurate particulars.

Analysis: Penalty proceedings are independent of assessment proceedings and the burden lies on the department to establish the ingredients necessary for levy of penalty. A finding in assessment may be relevant and admissible, but it is not conclusive and can only operate as evidence when considered with other surrounding circumstances. The existence of concealment or deliberate suppression cannot be presumed merely because the assessment order disbelieves the accounts or because the assessee could not produce seized material before the revisional authority.

Conclusion: Penalty could not be levied in the absence of any circumstance or evidence other than the finding in the assessment proceedings; the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A finding in assessment proceedings, by itself, is not sufficient to justify penalty; independent evidence or other material circumstances must establish conscious concealment or deliberate furnishing of inaccurate particulars.

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