TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (10) TMI 519
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.....02.2008 passed in Income Tax Appeal No. 2764(Del)/2007 for A.Y. 2000-01. 3. Present appeal was admitted on the following question of law: "(i) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was legally justified in upholding the proceedings U/s 147 of the Act, even though, the same is made only on account of change of opinion and without any material coming to the knowledge of the Assessing Officer? (ii) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was legally justified in to hold that the Assessing Officer has reason to believe that the income has escaped assessment? (iii) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was legally....
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....ar as question no.3 is concerned, learned counsel for the assessee has submitted, during the previous year in question, the assessee had purchased agricultural land from certain persons who did not have bank accounts or easy access to banking services and that in any case they had pressed for urgent payments to be made, if the sale were to fructify. The purchasers filed their affidavits during the assessment proceedings. In support of the aforesaid contentions they acknowledged the sale transactions. Further, they disclosed their true identities. The sale having been evidenced by a registered sale deed, there was nothing to doubt the genuineness of the transactions, yet, the Tribunal has overlooked these admitted facts and taken a technical....
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....It is open to the assessee to furnish to the satisfaction of the Assessing Officer the circumstances under which the payment in the manner prescribed in Section 40A(3) was not practicable or would have caused genuine difficulty to the payee." As has already been observed above, in the present case the totality of circumstances shows that the transactions were genuine for the reasons already mentioned above. In fact, the amount said to have been paid in cash by the assessee to certain parties has been verified by the certificates of those parties. Hence, the interest of the Department is protected because the Department can assess those amounts in the hands of the payee and it is not that these amounts will not be assessed at all. T....
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....has opined that it is the totality of the circumstances that may be seen i.e. the expenditure be allowed in entirety if the transactions were found to be genuine on the following consideration: "1. The statement of the assessee that his seller has been insisting on cash payment ; 2. The identity of the seller had been disclosed by the assessee ; 3. The assessee had furnished certificates from the sellers stating that they had insisted on cash payment ; 4. The genuineness of the payments." 9. In view of the facts of the present case, we find that the affidavits filed by the assessee during the assessment proceeding were not rebutted by the revenue. Those affidavits contain clear recital that the purchas....