TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (11) TMI 1325
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....rried out was prejudicial to the interest of revenue and thereby set aside the assessment order and directed for de novo assessment. The said order passed by the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax was challenged before the Tribunal, which upon examination in great detail of the inquiries carried out by the Assessing Officer especially in respect of the cash deposit of Rs. 91 lakhs, has came to the conclusion that proper inquiry was carried out by the Assessing Officer and only thereafter assessment order was passed. 4. In the present appeal the Appellant- Department has proposed the following substantial questions of law from the impugned order dated June 18, 2024 passed by Tribunal, which need to be determined by this court:- i. Whether on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Tribunal has erred in holding that the Assessing Officer while passing the assessment order u/s 143(3) dated 21.06.2019 has verified the details asked for by him and has conducted enquiries before making assessment whereas the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax in his order u/s 263 of the Act has found that no proper enquiry has been conducted by the AO on issue of cash deposited dur....
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....itions are satisfied, section 263 of the Act cannot be invoked. In the facts of the present case, learned PCIT has put much emphasis on Explanation 2 to section 263 of the Act. In our view, Explanation 2 to section 263 of the Act does not invest unbridled power with the revisionary authority so as to empower him to invoke revisionary jurisdiction arbitrarily. The words appearing in Explanation 2(a) to the effect that "the order is passed without making inquiries or verification which could have been made", certainly do not mean that on mere allegation that in the opinion of the revisionary authority the Assessing Officer has not made inquiries or verifications which should have been made, revisionary power can be invoked. Allegation of lack of enquiry by the Assessing Officer has to be substantiated based on record and cannot be conjured out of thin air." 7. Upon a perusal of the impugned order, we find that the Tribunal has gone into the details of the questionnaire issued by the Assessing Officer, examined the inquiry carried out by the Assessing Officer in detail and also examined the replies given by the assessee. It is only after having carried out the said examination, the T....
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....inion, be whether it is of general public importance or whether if directly and substantially affects the rights of the parties and if so whether it is either an open question in the sense that it is not finally settled by this Court or by the Privy Council or by the Federal Court or is not free from difficulty or calls for discussion of alternative views. If the question is settled by the highest court or the general principles to be applied in determining the question are well settled and there is a mere question of applying those principles or that the plea raised is palpably absurd the question would not be a substantial question of law." 10. The Delhi High Court in Pr. CIT v. Bhadani Financiers Pvt. Ltd. reported in (2022) 447 ITR 305 has observed what would amount to substantial question of law for filing an appeal under Section 260A of the Act. The relevant paragraph of the judgment is extracted below: "7. 'Substantial' means 'having substance, essential, real, of sound worth, important or considerable.' To be 'substantial', a question of law must be debatable, not previously settled. The Supreme Court and several High Courts have held that a substanti....
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....gs of the authorities are based on no evidence or that they are so perverse that no reasonable person would have arrived at those findings. 26. In M.S. Narayanagouda v. Girijamma [AIR 1977 Kant 58] the Court observed that any order made in conscious violation of pleading and law is a perverse order. In Moffett v. Gough [(1878) 1 LR Ir 331] the Court observed that a "perverse verdict" may probably be defined as one that is not only against the weight of evidence but is altogether against the evidence. In Godfrey v. Godfrey [106 NW 814] the Court defined "perverse" as turned the wrong way, not right; distorted from the right; turned away or deviating from what is right, proper, correct, etc. 27. The expression "perverse" has been defined by various dictionaries in the following manner: 1. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, 6th Edn. "Perverse. Showing deliberate determination to behave in a way that most people think is wrong, unacceptable or unreasonable." 2. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, International Edn. Perverse. Deliberately departing from what is normal and reasonable. 3. The New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998 Edn. Per....
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....e seized document, it has been observed that there was no material with the revenue to prima facie justify any addition towards unrecorded investment in stock. Allegations, in the present case, are not based upon weighing of evidence but for altogether a wrong decision. The decision suffers from vice of irrationality, rendering it infirm in law. In Municipal Committee, Hoshiarpur v. Punjab SEB (2010) 13 SCC 216 it has been held that: "28. If a finding of fact is arrived at by ignoring or excluding relevant material or by taking into consideration irrelevant material or if the finding so outrageously defies logic as to suffer from the vice of irrationality incurring the blame of being perverse, then the finding is rendered infirm in the eye of the law. If the findings of the Court are based on no evidence or evidence which is thoroughly unreliable or evidence that suffers from the vice of procedural irregularity or the findings are such that no reasonable person would have arrived at those findings, then the findings may be said to be perverse. Further if the findings are either ipse dixit of the Court or based on conjecture and surmises, the judgment suffers from the additional i....