2022 (4) TMI 229

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....tted that his case can be decided on legal issue qua reopening of the case u/s 147/148 of the Act, as the Assessee does not want to argue on merits of the case and will accept the result of order on legal issue, if adverse to the interest of the Assessee may be. 3. The case of the Assessee was re-opened by the AO by recording the reasons u/s 147 of the Act, on the basis of AIR information to the effect that the Assessee has deposited cash of Rs. 44,00,500/- in his Saving Bank Account during the FY 2008-09. Though the AO issued a letter dated 30.10.2015 to the Assessee however, the Assessee did not make any compliance to the same. Therefore, the opinion was formed by the AO that source of deposit in saving bank account of the Assessee remai....

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....Ld. Commissioner in affirmation of re-opening of proceedings u/s 147/148 of the Act. The provisions of section 147 are very much clear as it authorizes the Assessing Officer to assess or re-assess the income chargeable to tax, if he has reason to believe that the income for any assessment year has escaped assessment and has duly recorded the reasons, however it well settled that the reasons to believe must be bona fide and based upon some relevant material, on which a reasonable person could have form the requisite belief. 6.1 Let us peruse the reasons recorded by the AO, which are as under: "On the basis of AIR information that the Assessee has deposited cash of Rs. 44,00,500/- in his S.B. Account during the F.Y. 2008-09, verification l....

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..... SPL‟s Siddhartha Ltd 345 ITR 223 also dealt with the identical issue and held as under:- "In the present case, as already noticed, the reasons to believe contain not the reasons but the conclusions of the AO one after the other. There is no independent application of mind by the AO to the tangible material which forms the basis of the reasons to believe that income has escaped assessment. The conclusions of the AO are at best a reproduction of the conclusion in the investigation report. Indeed it is a 'borrowed satisfaction'. The reasons fail to demonstrate the link between the tangible material and the formation of the reason to believe that income has escaped assessment. For the aforementioned reasons, the Court is satisfi....

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....e of law that if a particular authority has been designated to record his/her satisfaction on a particular issue, then it is that authority alone who should apply his/her independent mind to record his/her satisfaction and further mandatory condition is that the satisfaction recorded should be "independent" and not "borrowed" or "dictated‟ satisfaction. 6.8 From the judgments referred above, inference can also be drawn that demonstration of link between the tangible material and the formation of the reasons to believe that income had escaped assessment is necessary for reopening the case u/s 147/ 148 of the Act and the information received from the Investigations Wing or AIR cannot be said to be a tangible material per se without fur....