TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2009 (4) TMI 316
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....with respect to the order of assessment whereby the figures returned by the assessee have been disbelieved, leading to enhancement of gross income. Miscellaneous Appeal No. 420 of 2004 is consequential in nature, whereby penalty have been imposed on the assessee and the dues. have been directed to be recovered with interest. 2. The basic facts necessary for the disposal of the appeal shall be drawn from Miscellaneous Appeal No. 59 of 2002, except by specific reference to Miscellaneous Appeal No. 420 of 2004. The assessee at the relevant point of time was in the service of the Bihar Government as a doctor, and was also a private practitioner. She filed returns showing gross income of Rs. 2,85,140 for the period in question. Search and sei....
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....s marriage expenses were fully justified, and the amount of referral income received by the assessee has been reduced to Rs. 50,000. 3. By order dated September 13, 2006, passed in the present appeal, the following substantial question of law was formulated for the decision by this court : "Whether in the absence of any material on record the Tribunal has erred in law in confirming the addition of Rs. 2 lakhs for the alleged unexplained investment in the marriage of daughter Shipra Roy, who in spite of opposition of the family had married her class mate ?" 4. While assailing the validity of the impugned order, 1earned counsel for the assessee submits that there was no material before the learned Assessing Officer to enhance the fig....
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.... conscience of the family and, therefore, they had not participated in the marriage ceremony except the reception party held to celebrate the marriage out of the funds provided by Shri Jagat Bali Roy, her father-in-law, a lawyer at Gopalganj. He was in a position to make expenses because he was a lawyer, and had agricultural income of Rs. 44,000 during the period in question. The question whether or not the family had disowned the marriage and had refused to participate in the wedding and the celebrations is not a matter of guess in the present proceeding. The factual position which has emerged because of the raids conducted in the premises of the assessee on August 10, 1994, had come close on the heels of the daughter's marriage, is that t....
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.... other words, the learned Tribunal concluded on the basis of the materials that there was no inhibiting factor to prevent the parents from celebrating the marriage of their daughter. 9. The next question which arises for consideration is quantification of the amount spent over the wedding reception. It appears to us that the learned Tribunal has made an abnormally conservative estimate of expenses with respect to the daughter's marriage of successful and affluent gynaecologist.. Her father was also a Patna-based professor of Indian History, and the family was in a position to spend much more than the amount of Rs. 2,00,000. Another important aspect of the matter is that the assessee claimed that the amount has been spent by the father-in....
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....y lightly. The findings in the impugned order, and that of the learned Assessing Officer, is based on the documentary evidence seized in the course of search and seizure. We are strongly of the view that the quantification of income made by the learned Assessing Officer was better than that of the Tribunal. The latter needlessly strained itself, without any justification, to reduce the income and grant relief to the assessee. She has been let off on account of unjustifiably liberal approach on the part of the learned Tribunal. In the result, we do not find any merit in Miscellaneous Appeal No. 59 of 2002, and is accordingly dismissed. M. A. No. 420of 2004: 11. Learned counsel for the assessee has assailed the validity of the impugned ....
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....r of Income-tax, the learned Tribunal has held: "He had not grasped the facts in toto and reached a perverse conclusion." 12. It is thus evident on the findings recorded in the impugned order that the assessee is a mendacious person capable of taking contradictory stands with the dishonest intention to avoid lawful taxation. The learned Tribunal was, therefore, fully justified in imposing penalty. Indeed, the Tribunal has observed as follows : "Heard both the parties and perused the record. We are of the view that since the hon'ble Income-tax Appellate Tribunal has confirmed the addition in the quantum appeal, by holding that the assessee has tried to mislead the Department by creating fictitious story in regard to the ma....