2019 (1) TMI 89

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....are that the assessee, found to have deposited cash in his savings bank account (with ICICI Bank, Kapurthala) at Rs. 12.90 lacs during the year, in explanation for Rs. 6.50 lacs so deposited [on 10.04.2007 (Rs.4 lacs) and 03.10.2007 (Rs.2.50 lacs)] during the assessment proceedings, submitted the same to be a biana (advance) received against the sale of his residential house at Kapurthala from one, Kuldeep Singh s/o Sh. Sarmukh Singh, producing the sale agreement dated 10.04.2007, entered into with him in support (PB pg. 2). The same containing the signatures of both the parties as well as the marginal witnesses, was a reliable document with evidentiary value, and its' registration was not required by law. Further, as however there arose so....

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..... The ld. Departmental Representative (DR) would, on the other hand, submit that the assessee continues to retain the amount to date, i.e., despite lapse of over 10 years. There is, however, no plea or contention of any subsisting dispute qua the said transaction, or even of the assessee having sold his house subsequently. Even Sh. Kuldeep Singh, the person claimed to have paid the cash, is not produced for examination at any stage. The sale agreement with him is, under the circumstances, a self-serving document, which is to be ignored, even as explained by the Apex Court in CIT v. Durga Prasad More [1991] 82 ITR 540 (SC). Sh. Bhasin would, in rejoinder, submit that the matter may be remitted back to the file of the AO for consideration an....

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....sh balance of Rs. 0.20 lacs, with an average of Rs. 4 lacs during the year! Why did the assessee, then, in dire and pressing need of funds, maintain such a high cash balance even as he considers, and actually proceeds to take the extreme step of selling his house, which serves a primal lead for housing as well as for security. If the cash was maintained as he might, on a failure of the transaction, be required to repay the intending buyer, the same was not done. And neither could the assessee make use of the cash so generated, stated to be for his urgent needs, serving thus no purpose! The agreement stipulating the forfeiture of the advance in case of a default by the buyer, there was no imminent risk of repayment (of advance), which could ....

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.... reason for his not keeping his date (10.04.2008) and completing the transaction. If so, his affidavit, confirming the transaction, stating the source of the funds, along with his return of income, etc., would be regarded as, under the circumstances, a reasonable discharge of the obligation on the assessee to substantiate his case. Rather, Sh. Kuldeep Singh would have, post assessment, definitely visited India, so that the assessee could have offered for him being examined by it to the Revenue. Even as no such offer was made, it makes one wonder as to why one, in the process of shifting abroad, as inferable from his having gone abroad before 10.04.2008, would consider investing in India and, further, in a residential house, even as his res....