TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1983 (1) TMI 3
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....Whether the Appellate Tribunal's finding is based on valid and relevant materials and a reasonable view to take on the facts of the case ?" On the basis that the credit entries in the names of various multani bankers appearing in the books of the assessee did not represent genuine transactions and that there was information to the effect that such multani bankers had only indulged in hawala transactions by merely lending their names, the Income-tax Officer reopened under section 147(a) of the Income-tax Act, the assessment for the assessment year 1957-58, which was completed on July 23, 1958, on a total income of Rs. 15,472. The assessee's explanation did not find favour with the assessing officer and consequently by his order dated Janu....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....imony of the assessee alone. Here, admittedly, some crossed cheques were issued to the alleged multani bankers by the assessee; yet the assessee did not care to summon those cheques. Hence, the isolated statement of the assessee has no evidentiary value at all. Any finding on such unworthy evidence deserves to be characterised as perverse and has to be set aside. Nevertheless, the learned counsel for the assessee brought to our notice the following decisions, namely, Gouri Prasad Bagaria v. ClT [1961] 42 ITR 112 (SC), Homi Jehangir Gheesta v. CIT [1961] 41 ITR 135 (SC), CIT v. M. Ganapathi Mudaliar [1964] 53 ITR 623 (SC) and Coimbatore Spinning & Weaving Co. Ltd. v. CIT [1974] 95 ITR 375 (Mad). We must straightaway point out that in none....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
..... M. Ganapathi Mudaliar [1964] 53 ITR 623, 631 : " With great respect, the High Court did not appreciate the findings of the Tribunal recorded in the supplementary statement. The Tribunal had accepted the earlier findings of the court, recorded in the order dated July 31, 1958, but in spite of discarding the theory of benami on the material before it, it came to the conclusion that no other conclusion except that 87,500 dollars was the income of the assessee was possible. Once it is held, as we do hold, that there was material for the finding of the Tribunal that 87,500 dollars represented the income of the assessee, no other issue survives." In that case, the only available evidence placed before the Tribunal was the statement of ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....wn as against the person who ought to have produced it. In this case, there were crossed cheques, but they were not produced. Then, the finding of the Tribunal resting solely on the interested statement of the assessee without available corroborating material, is hardly acceptable and the Revenue is, therefore, justified in contending that such a finding deserves to be set aside. The immediate question is, whether the matter has to be remanded or has to be dealt with on the material existing in this case. The assessment order is in respect of the assessment year 1957-58. We are now in 1983. At any rate the assessee did not avail of the opportunities available to her before the Tribunal to summon the crossed cheques or produce additional ....