Voluntary admission in survey records sustained penalty; later coercion plea failed when not raised promptly.

A voluntary admission of undisclosed stock recorded in contemporaneous survey documents, signed by the assessee and supported by the trading account, could not later be displaced by a belated allegation of coercion or Rule 50 violation made only at the appellate stage. Because no prompt complaint of pressure was made to superior authorities and the original record supported acceptance of the stock position and penalty, the Tax Board's view that signatures were absent was not sustained. The High Court restored the orders upholding the penalty and held that the penalty had been rightly levied.

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Issues: Whether the deletion of penalty by the Tax Board was justified when the survey record showed unaccounted stock, the assessee had signed the stock statement and trading account, and the assessee's later plea of coercion and violation of Rule 50 was raised only at the appellate stage.

Analysis: The survey records showed a stock statement and trading account duly signed by the assessee and counter-signed by the Assessing Officer. The assessee's letter recorded acceptance of undisclosed stock and willingness to suffer penalty, and the penalty was thereafter deposited. No contemporaneous complaint of coercion or pressure was made to any superior authority within a reasonable time after the survey. In these circumstances, the later allegation of coercion could not displace the voluntary admission, and the Tax Board's finding that the record lacked signatures was not supported by the original material. The precedent relied upon by the Court treated a belated allegation of coercion in similar circumstances as unacceptable.

Conclusion: The deletion of penalty by the Tax Board was unsustainable. The orders of the Assessing Officer and the appellate authority upholding the penalty were restored, and the penalty under the Act was held to have been rightly levied.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition succeeded, the Tax Board's order was set aside, and the penalty imposed on the assessee stood sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: A voluntary admission of undisclosed stock recorded in contemporaneous survey documents, not repudiated promptly before superior authorities, cannot later be displaced by a belated allegation of coercion, and the fact-finding authority may rely on such admission to sustain penalty.

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