Book results cannot be rejected for missing cash customer addresses where sales are undisputed and books are otherwise regular.

Book results could not be rejected merely because the assessee did not maintain or furnish the addresses of cash customers. The account books were otherwise regular, the cash sales were undisputed, sales were at prevailing market rates, and there was no finding of suppression of sales or understatement of rates. In cash transactions of this kind, there was no legal necessity to record customers' addresses, and assumptions about possible scarcity of sugar were not a sound evidentiary basis for invoking the proviso to section 13 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. The Tribunal's contrary view was treated as resting on surmise rather than material on record, and the addition made by the Income-tax Officer was deleted.

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Issues: Whether the book results of the assessee could be rejected and the proviso to section 13 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 applied merely because the addresses of cash customers were not maintained or furnished, and whether the Tribunal's contrary view was supported by evidence.

Analysis: The account books were otherwise found to be regular and the cash sales themselves were not disputed. The sales were at prevailing market rates, there was no finding of suppression of sales or understatement of rates, and in the nature of cash transactions there was no legal necessity to maintain customers' addresses. The rejection of the books rested only on the inability to furnish addresses and on assumptions about possible scarcity of sugar, neither of which constituted a sound evidentiary basis for discarding the book results. The Tribunal's conclusion was therefore based on surmise rather than material on record.

Conclusion: The rejection of the assessee's book results was not justified, the proviso to section 13 could not be invoked on these facts, and the addition made by the Income-tax Officer was rightly deleted.

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