TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1973 (6) TMI 13
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.... and 1964-65, disclosing professional receipts of Rs. 1,43,650, Rs. 1,38,251 and Rs. 1,19,850, respectively. The returns were principally based upon the diaries which were maintained by the assessee in which proper entries were made in respect of receipts received by her for the professional work done by her as a play-back singer. From the diaries, M/s. Ghanekar & Co., a firm of chartered accountants, used to write regular accounts. The assessee had produced confirmatory letters from all the producers regarding the correctness of payments shown to have been made by them. The Income-tax Officer came across a sort of a ledger maintained by the firm known as Vasu Films of Madras containing certain entries, which had been seized by the income-t....
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....ns made by the Income-tax Officer. Before the Tribunal it was contended on behalf of the assessee that the entire evidence on which the lower authorities had relied merely created suspicion that the assessee might have accepted the payments in "black" but it did not take the place of proof. The Tribunal after appreciating all the pieces of evidence that were relied upon by the department in support of its case came to the conclusion that the evidence was not sufficient to prove even a single instance where the assessee could be said to have received money in " black " for which she did not pass a receipt, The other evidence was of a general character suggesting that the practice of receiving part remuneration in black was prevalent among ci....
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.... substantial reasons as to why it was not inclined to accept the entries as reliable entries for accepting the case of the department. Inter alia, it pointed out that the ledger containing the said entries had not been produced before it, that no corresponding entries were there in the day-book of the relevant period and that Vasu Films did not rely on this ledger in the course of its own assessment proceedings but for its own assessment proceedings different set of books had been relied upon as genuine set of books. As regards the evidence of the two witnesses on which reliance was placed by the department, the Tribunal has pointed out that so far as N. Vasudev Menon was concerned, he had no personal knowledge of the actual payments made t....
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....he Tribunal further observed that no attempt was made to explain the absence of relevant entries in the day-book and for that reason the Tribunal rejected the entries in the ledger on which reliance was placed. Mr. Joshi tried to urge that, after all, the entries in the ledger were the entries in a book which was not meant for being disclosed to the income-tax authorities because it contained the entries pertaining to the payment in " black " and the day-book for the relevant period that was available was a day-book meant for being produced before the taxing authorities as it contained entries pertaining to all legal and white payments and naturally in such day-book no corresponding entries would be found. So no importance should have been ....