In a search-based tax dispute, the ITAT held that protective...

In a search-based tax dispute, the ITAT held that protective additions could not survive where the seized loose sheets were non-speaking, unsigned and uncorroborated, and the statements relied on had not been tested by cross-examination. Because the same search material had already been found to lack evidentiary value in the trust's case, and the Revenue produced no fresh material, the Commissioner (Appeals) was justified in deleting the additions. The pendency of the Revenue's challenge to the earlier Tribunal order before the High Court did not displace the binding effect of the coordinate Bench decision unless it was set aside or overruled.

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