1982 (1) TMI 18

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....lowed the filing of the return, the ITO found a number of cash credits appearing in the assessee's books of account. Before the investigation into the genuineness of these credits and their source could get heated up, the assessee itself came forward and offered for the purposes of assessment, the amount of peak credit appearing from the account books of the year. The ITO accepted that offer and brought to tax a sum of Rs. 30,000 which he estimated to be the peak credit, as part of the income, over and above what was returned by the assessee. In this process while disbelieving the apparent form of the cash credit entries which figured in the account books as if they represented moneys lent to the assessee, the ITO also disallowed the intere....

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....no concealment on its part of any income and merely because, in the course of assessment proceedings an eagerness was shown to settle the assessment by offering the peak credit as taxable income, it cannot be held that there was evidence of an actual concealment of that amount as income. The Tribunal accepted this submission of the assessee. They held that while it was open to the assessing authority, to invoke s. 68 of the I.T. Act and treat the unexplained cash credits as taxable income, the enabling power under the statute was restricted only for assessment purposes. The Tribunal observed that for the purpose of penalty it would be incumbent on the revenue authorities to make out, by cogent evidence, that there, had been a concealment of....

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....e Appellate Tribunal's finding that the assessee had not concealed income in respect of the cash credits is a reasonable view to take on the facts of the case ? " Although as many as three questions have been framed, the real issue for decision is whether the Tribunal's finding that the assessee had not concealed its income in respect of cash credits can be regarded as a reasonable view of the facts on record. This issue, in our judgment, is fairly presented in the third question of law before us. We have earlier referred to the factual background to the case as well as the content of the proceedings before the various authorities. We have also referred to the reasonings of the Appellate Tribunal. It would have been seen that the Trib....