2020 (8) TMI 266
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....assessment by giving a notice of enhancement. In this notice of enhancement, he proposed to disallow salary expenses claimed by the assessee to the tune of Rs. 11,21,250/- for various reasons. The assessee relied upon the judgement of Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of Sardari Lal & Co. 120 Taxman 595 (Del.) and argued that, the ld. CIT(A) has no jurisdiction to make an enhancement on a new source of income. 4. The ld. CIT(A) relied on the judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Nirbheram Daluram (224 ITR 610) for the propositions that powers of the ld. CIT(A) are co-terminus with that of the ITO as held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Jute Corpn. Of India Ltd. vs. CIT [1991] 187 ITR 688. 5. He distinguished the judgement of the Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of Sardari Lal & Co.(supra). The ld. CIT(A) also relied on the decision of the Allahabad High Court in the case of CIT vs. Kashi Nath Candiwala (144 Taxman 840) and rejected the contention of the assessee. He enhanced the assessment by disallowing the claim of salary payment of Rs. 11,21,250/- for the various reasons given in his order. Aggrieved, the assessee is in appeal....
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....is of such fresh assessment;" 7.1. This Section has been interpreted by the Hon'ble Courts as follows:- CIT vs. Rai Bhadur Hardutroy Motilal Chamaria (1967 SCR (3) 508) "The principle that emerges as a result of the authorities of this Court is that the Appellate Assistant Commissioner has no jurisdiction, under s. 31(3) of the Act, to assess a source of income which has not been processed by the Income- tax Officer and which is not disclosed either in the returns filed by the assessee or in the assessment order, and therefore, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner cannot travel beyond the subject- matter of the assessment. In other words, the power of enhancement under s. 31 (3) of the Act is restricted to the subjectmatter of assessment or the sources of income which have been considered expressly or by clear implication by the Income-tax Officer from the point of view of the taxability of die assessee. ....... But since the Income-tax Officer has not applied his mind to the question of the taxability or non-taxability of the amount of Rs. 5,85,000, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner had no jurisdiction, in the circumstances of the present case, to enhance the taxable i....
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....n that case, the assessee had three businesses at Purnea, Jalpaiguri and Calcutta. His income from Purnea only was assessed by the Income-tax Officer. On appeal by the assessee, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner assessed him with regard to the income from the other two businesses. The head of income was the same within section 6 of the Income-tax Act, but the sources of income were different. The Patna High Court observed: "Now this section relating to appeals is enacted for the benefit of the subject and also, to the limited extent therein stated, for the benefit of the Crown. But the subject-matter of the appeal is the assessment and the scope of the appeal must in my opinion be limited by the subjectmatter. The appellate authority has no power to travel beyond the subject-matter of the assessment and, for all the reasons advanced by the appellant, is in my opinion not entitled to assess new sources of income." The view of the Patna High Court receives support from a decision of the Madras High Court in Gajalakshmi Ginning Factory v. Commissioner of Income-tax [1952] 22 ITR 502 where, at page 510, the Divisional Bench observed as follows: "Of course, it would not b....
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....also came before this court in Commissioner of Income-tax v. McMillan & Co. [1958] 33 ITR 182 (SC); but the question, with which we are concerned, was left open. There is, however, a passage in the judgment, approving of the observations of Chagla, C.J., in Narrondas Manordass v. Commissioner of Income-tax [1957] 31 ITR 909 to the following effect: "It is clear that the Appellate Assistant Commissioner has been constituted a revising authority against the decisions of the Income-tax Officer; a revising authority not in the narrow sense of revising what is the subject-matter of the appeal, not in the sense of revising those matters about which the assessee makes a grievance, but a revising authority in the sense that once the appeal is before him he can revise not only the ultimate computation arrived at by the Incometax Officer but he can revise every process which led to the ultimate computation or assessment. In other words, what he can revise is not merely the ultimate amount which is liable to tax, but he is entitled to revise the various decisions given by the Income-tax Officer in the course of the assessment and also the various incomes or deductions which came in for con....
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....ought to tax, there is reason to think that the view expressed uniformly about the limits of the powers of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner to enhance the assessment has been accepted by the legislature as the true exposition of the words of the section. If it were not, one would expect that the legislature would have amended section 31 and specified the other intention in express words. The Incometax Act was amended several times in the last 37 years, but no amendment of section 31(3) was undertaken to nullify the rulings, to which we have referred. In view of this, we do not think that we should interpret section 31 differently from what has been accepted in India as its true import, particularly as that view is also reasonably possible. CIT vs. Associated Garments Makers [64 Taxman 215] "7. Appeals are provided under section 246 of the Act before the AAC and the Commissioner (Appeals). These appeals are by the assessee aggrieved by the orders mentioned therein. Any order made under section 143(3) is appealable and the powers of the appellate court are provided in section 251 of the Act wherein appellate authority has power to confirm, reduce, enhance or annul the asses....
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....ed in the return of the assessee or considered by the Income-tax Officer in the order appealed against", and in the case of Rai Bahadur Hardutroy Motilal Chamaria (supra) wherein it has been held that, "It is not therefore open to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner to travel outside the record, i.e., the return made by the assessee or the assessment order of the Income-tax Officer, with a view to finding out new sources of income and the power of enhancement under section 31(3) is restricted to the sources of income which have been the subject-matter of consideration by the Income-tax Officer from the point of view of taxability". Their Lordships considered the meaning of the word 'consideration' and held that, " 'consideration' does not mean 'incidental' or 'collateral' examination of any matter by the Income-tax Officer in the process of assessment. There must be something in the assessment order to show that the Income-tax Officer applied his mind to the particular subject-matter or the particular source of income with a view to its taxability or to its non-taxability and not to any incidental connection". In the instant case, the AAC had himsel....


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