TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2010 (3) TMI 763
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....-96 1996-97 A. Srinivasan 6,40,758 14,46,933 26,47,647 8,64,500 S. Kalavathy 1,47,797 16,19,679 21,82,847 1,55,000 S. Balaji Manikandan 84,423 5,68,015 21,85,604 8,64,500 A. Rajendran - - 15,62,500 - R. Mohanakala - - 15,62,500 - Total 8,72,978 36,34,627 1,01,41,098 32,79,000 Assessing Officer proceeded to verify the genuineness of the above gifts and examined all the assessees as well as the donor. Donor was stated by the assessee to be one Shri Sampath Kumar. According to the donor, one of the assessees, Shri A. Srinivasan was a very close family friend of his and he needed the help of Shri A. Srinivasan to take care of his family in case anything happened to him. Further according to Shri Sampath Kumar, he was brought up by Shri A. Srinivasan, after his father's death, and the gifts made by Shri A. Srinivasan and various relatives were on account of gratitude that he had to Shri A. Srinivasan. It is to be noted that all the assessees are related to Shri A. Srinivasan who is also one of the appellants but none are related to the donor. Initially the assessees had explained the gifts to have been received from one Suprotoman alias Ariavan Thottan. B....
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....The Tribunal speaking though its Senior Vice President concurred with the findings of fact. The findings in our considered opinion are based on the material available on record and not on any conjectures and surmises. They are not imaginary as sought to be contended." 6. Penalty proceedings were also initiated against the respective assessees. The submissions made by the assessees before the Assessing Officer on the show-cause notice for levy of penalty, ran as under : (1) The Donor, Mr. Sampathkumar has sent all the gifts through Bank and evidence of his Bank accounts have also been filed at the time of hearing. (2) The Donor was brought up by one of the assessees in the family and he felt that his high position in life was due to the help and affection shown to him. (3) The Donor himself has appeared before the Assessing Officer and confirmed the facts. (4) The Donors identity, his source of income, his solvency and his love and gratitude to the family of Mr. A. Srinivasan, one of the assessee, have all been established and proved beyond any doubt. (5) Love knows no bounds. (6) The assessee has discharged the burden of proving the relevant facts. (7) G....
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....blished or misdirected. * Solvency of the donor is not proven. * Motivation of gift is a reason beyond imagination. * There are indications of compensatory payments in the letters written by the so called donor. He therefore, levied penalty in each of the case at 150 per cent of the tax which was sought to be evaded. 7. Appeals of the respective assessees before the Commissioner (A) met with no success. Relying on the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of one of the assessees namely P. Mohanakala's case (supra) the Commissioner (A) came to the following conclusions : (i) The explanations given by the assessees were contrary and unbelievable; (ii) It was not possible to accept that assessee had given all necessary details regarding the credits; (iii) If the department had not made proper investigation and examination, the concealment would have gone unearthed; (iv) Reliance placed by the assessee on the decision of the Jurisdictional High Court in A. Rajendran v. Asstt. Comm., Special Investigation [2007] 291 ITR 178 (Mad.) was misdirected since Apex Court had reversed this in the case of P. Mohanakala (supra); (v) Advancing of false explanat....
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....eer Kant Agarwal [2009] 34 SOT 12 (Luck.)(URO) (g) Smt. Sandhya Verma v. ITO [2008] 114 TTJ (Delhi) 933. 10. Per contra learned Departmental Representative submitted that the Apex Court had given a clear finding in that the transactions of gift though apparent were not real. According to him, the Hon'ble Apex Court had observed that it was of no consequence whether money had come by way of bank cheques or not and the findings of the lower authorities that the transactions were of doubtful nature was based on proper appreciation of facts and material available on record. Strong reliance was placed on the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Dharmendra Textiles Processors (supra). 11. We have perused the orders and also heard the rival contentions intently. No doubt the Apex Court has in the case of P. Mohanakala (supra) upheld the additions made by the Assessing Officer disbelieving the alleged gifts received by the respective assessees from Shri Sampath Kumar. We have carefully gone through the findings of the Hon'ble Apex Court reproduced at paragraph 5 above and also its further findings given in subsequent paragraphs of its order. One thing that is clear is that the ....