2025 (6) TMI 623

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....re proceedings under the provisions of section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) in the case of Malabar Group of concerns, the AO of the said group recorded satisfaction that the assessee received undisclosed income from the said Malabar group of companies in the form of return on investment based on the entries found in the second set of books of account maintained by one Mr. Prajeesh in his hard disk and one Mr. Sameer in his pen drive. Accordingly, based on this information contained in the seized material found in the case of Malabar group of companies, the AO issued a notice u/s. 153C of the Act on 22.07.2021. The appellant also filed return of income in response to the notice issued u/s. 153C disclosing the same income as show....

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....n. 8. I heard the rival contentions of both the parties and perused the material available on record. From the ground of appeal filed before the CIT(A), it is clear that the appellant laid serious challenge on the very validity of the assessment made u/s. 143(3) r.w.s. 153C of the Act by alleging that without recording satisfaction by the AO of the searched person, and as well as the AO of the appellant, a notice u/s. 153C of the Act was issued. From para 5 of the order of the CIT(A) it is clear that the CIT(A) merely returns finding by observing as under: - 5. The grounds/contentions raised by the appellant at various stages of the appellate proceedings have been carefully considered. One of the contentions of the appellant is that the ....

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.... rejected. 5.2 The appellant has further argued that the AO is relying on certain seized documents from the Malabar Group of Companies and none of the alleged documents are indicating any amount is paid in excess, with any supporting documents. With regard to the above, it needs to be stated that the entire set of payments are done outside the books of accounts and hence logic would not support the existence of proper documentation for such payments. MGC at no point of time has questioned the genuineness/validity of the material seized from its premises. That being the case, the appellant who himself is a shareholder of MGC cannot take a stand that the payments, as reflected in the seized material was ever made. Without prejudice to the ....