TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (1) TMI 543
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....lusion of the Assessment Officer (A.O.) that he has reasons to believe that an income chargeable to tax of the petitioners / assessee company has escaped assessment for any assessment year, is required to be backed by sufficient reasons to be disclosed to the petitioners/ assessee company. Referring to the several correspondence to and fro the petitioners/ assessee company and the respondents/revenue represented by Mr.Soumitra Mukherjee today, learned counsel argues that the A.O. issued a notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 proposing to reassess the income for the Assessment Year (A.Y.) 2010‐2011 and, accordingly directed the petitioners to file a return in the prescribed form for the said A.Y. 2010‐ 2011 for th....
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....ot unjustified as, during such reopening the petitioners shall be favoured with the opportunity to answer the reassessment at the appropriate stage. The petitioners rely upon several authorities including a majority decision of the Hon'ble Appex Court in case of Calcutta Discount Co. Ltd. v. Income -Tax Officer, Companies District I, Calcutta, And Another reported in 41 ITR 191 (SC) to point out that the exercise under Section 147 must be backed by sufficient reasons of the A.O. himself. Such reasons are not required to be gathered or /calculated from any other source/department and, till the petitioners are in possession of such sufficient reasons of the A.O., the procedure under Section 147 of the IT Act, 1961 cannot be carried further....
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.... 2017. Having heard the parties and considering the materials placed, this Court is satisfied that complete disclosure sought to be labored by the learned Counsel for the petitioners in an assessment proceeding under Section 147 (Supra) is not the sole duty of the revenue / respondents alone but, equally, lies at the door step of the petitioners/ assessee company. This Court is also satisfied that the reasons for harbouring the belief of the income having escaped assessment have been clarified in the reply dated 26th /27th July, 2017 and, the process of answering the evidence in detail can start only after the reassessment exercise takes place on the basis of the required disclosures which lie at the door step of the petitioners /assesse....
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....er section 34 of the Act. The following example explains the meaning. Taking the present case, I set below two statements, one involving full disclosure and a contention, and the other, only a contention with a material fact suppressed: "(1). We are a trading company and our business is according to our memorandum of association 'to acquire, hold, exchange, sell and deal in shares, stocks, etc.' These sales, however, were not business sales but only change of investments into trustee securities as decided by the trustees. (2). We changed industrial shares into trustee securities because 'in or about 1934, the trustees decided to convert the Indian Industrial Shares held by the appellant into trustee securities'." ....
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.... contrary, maintaining of a falsehood, and this was sufficient to bring this matter within the extended period. Every contention contrary to the Income‐tax Officer's opinion is not necessarily concealment of a material fact, but some contentions made with a mental reservation as to the true state of affairs may amount to such concealment, if they involve non‐disclosure of facts related to other facts and known to the assessee. The company still persists that the sales of shares were casual transactions, and this contention will, no doubt, be decided hereafter. But the question will be decided after taking into consideration the nature of the business of the company, and till that is done, the Income‐tax Officer be....