Double taxation in block assessment is barred when the same income was already taxed in regular assessment without fresh seized material.

Where the same income for the same assessee and assessment year had already been brought to tax in regular assessment on material available to the Assessing Officer, it could not be assessed again in block proceedings merely by treating one addition as protective and the other as substantive. The Tribunal also held that estimates of commission and excess agricultural income could not survive as undisclosed income in block assessment unless supported by seized material. On that footing, the regular assessment addition was sustained, while the block assessment additions were deleted for double taxation and absence of fresh incriminating material.

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Issues: Whether the additions relating to alleged NRI gifts and allied estimates could be sustained in the regular assessment under section 143(3) or were liable to be considered only in the block assessment under section 158BC, and whether the block assessment could again tax the same income.

Analysis: The assessment year in question had already been subjected to a regular assessment on the basis of material available with the Assessing Officer, and the same amount was also brought to tax in the block assessment after the search. The Tribunal held that where the identity of the assessee and the relevant assessment year are not in doubt, the same income cannot be assessed twice merely by labelling one assessment as protective and the other as substantive. It further held that, for the same reason, estimates of commission and excess agricultural income in the block assessment were unsupported by seized material and could not survive as undisclosed income within the meaning of the block assessment provisions.

Conclusion: The addition in the regular assessment was upheld and the contrary view of the first appellate authority was reversed, while the block assessment additions were deleted as resulting in double taxation and lacking support from seized material.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the same income for the same assessee and assessment year has already been brought to tax on the basis of material available at the time of regular assessment, it cannot again be assessed in block proceedings in the absence of fresh seized material establishing undisclosed income.

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