TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (6) TMI 1521
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....es, is against equity and justice and facts of the assessee and material on record; 4. The Ld.CIT(A) has erred on facts and in law in upholding addition irrespective of the fact that assessee has discharged onus u/s 68 and no opportunity of cross examination of Jain Brothers & directors of subscriber companies, intermediaries was provided to the assessee; 5. The Ld.CIT(A) has erred on facts and in law in upholding the validity of reassessment proceedings ignoring the fact that initiation of the proceedings u/s 148, the procedure followed and the consequent order u/s 148, the procedure followed and the consequent order u/s 147 are bad in law; 6. The Ld.CIT(A) has erred on facts and in law by not adjudicating ground of initiation of penalty proceedings u/s 271(1)(c) without any material on record." 2. The Ld. Counsel for the assessee, at the outset, submits that the assessee in ground nos. 3 & 5 challenged the very validity of the reassessment proceedings initiated by the Assessing Officer (AO) u/s 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 as the impugned reassessment order passed by the AO is contrary to law, passed without application of mind. Ld. Counsel for th....
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....y the Assessing Officer while filling up the proforma for obtaining the approval from Commissioner under section 151 of the Act and the ld. CIT also has granted approval in a mechanical manner. The Tribunal observed that in the Form for recording the reasons for initiating proceedings under section 148 for obtaining approval of the Pr. CIT, column 7 i.e. the provisions under which the re-opening was sought for are applicable has been mentioned as section 147(b) and the provisions of section 147(b) are non-existent in the statute book for the assessment year 2010-11. Therefore, the co-ordinate bench of the Tribunal came to the conclusion that there is complete non-application of mind by in obtaining the approval from Pr. CIT and in similar manner the approval was granted by Pr. CIT. While coming to such conclusion the Tribunal referred to various decisions and held as under:- 2. First of all, I have heard the arguments of both the representatives on legal ground No.3 of the assessee which reads as under:- "3. The Id. CIT(A) has erred on facts and in law in upholding the impugned order of the learned assessing officer which is contrary to law, passed without applica....
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.... that the said searched group was involved in providing accommodation entries. 2. Further, there is specific reference in para 10 (PB 21- 22) and para 14-15 (PB 25-26) various seized material has been discussed which includes Annexure A-150 pages 1- 13 (PB 26) and other details showing amount of commission and payments to various middlemen in consideration of accommodation entries by them. 3. In para 10 sub para vi (PB 22), there is mention of daily cash book, cheque books seized from Sh S.K. Jain whereby details of cash received from various beneficiaries companies/person through various middleman/agents in lieu of accommodation entries provided to them on various dates have been recorded. 4. There is reference to the seized records elsewhere in the reason particularly in para 18 and 18.1 page 27 and para 21 at page 31 also which led the AO to form a prima facie view of escapement of income chargeable to tax. 5. From these discussions, it is evident that the AO had no material to initiate action u/s 147 except for the material relating to the appellant found in the course of search on above named individuals. Under section 153C(1) (b) of IT Act,....
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....T dt: 15.03.2013, the AO initiated action by recording undated reasons for which approval was granted on 21.03.2017. From the above discussion, it is evident that the above direction is the trigger point for initiating action u/s 148 and therefore it can be inferred that there is a satisfaction of authority other than the AO resulting into reopening of the case. This is against the provisions of sec 147 which lay down that it is the AO whose satisfaction is sine qua none for valid initiation of reassessment proceedings. In Green World Corporation (supra) (SC) held that Notices issued pursuant to the direction by the Pr. CIT thereto would be bad in law. Further In CIT v. SPL's Siddhartha Ltd. [2012] 345 ITR 223 (Del), relying on Sheo Narain Jaiswal & Ors. Vs. ITO, 176 ITR 35 (Pat.), held: 'Where the Assessing Officer does not himself exercise his jurisdiction under Section 147 but merely acts at the behest of any superior authority, it must be held that assumption of jurisdiction was bad for non- satisfaction of the condition precedent.' In the case of Munjal Showa Ltd vs Dy CIT & Anr WP.(C) 1707/2014 DT: 22.02.2016, the Hon'ble Delhi High Court has qu....
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....ned order thereon does not meet requirement of law. Such legal infirmity leads to inevitable invalidation of all the proceedings that took place pursuant to notice u/s. 148. Recently, the coordinate of Hon'ble Delhi ITAT in case of M/s R N Khemka Enterprises P Ltd vs ITO in ITA No. 7244/Del/2019 dt: 12.08.2021 has quashed the reassessment proceedings on similar grounds. Kindly refer para's 33 to 35 at internal page 51-53 therein. V. Mechanical Approval Granted by Pr CIT The exercise of approval u/s 151(1) of IT Act by the Ld Pr CIT, Delhi-8, New Delhi appears to have been ritualistic and formal rather than meaningful, which goes against the rationale of the safeguard of approval by a higher- ranking officer provided in the Act. Inconsistencies and omissions pointed in preceding para's in support of ground on non application of mind are the glaring mistakes committed by the AO and non-pointing out such omissions by the approving authority and resulting non-correction of the same, before the approval was accorded, shows that the said authority have acted mechanically in granting sanction u/s 151 of the Act. Such mechanical approval was found to be fatal for validity of t....
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....s quashed the reassessment proceeding" 4. Briefly reiterating the written submissions of the assessee, the ld. AR submitted that the invocation of reassessment proceedings based on non-existing provisions of the law clearly shows that it is a clear case of non-application of mind by the AO and also by the authorities provided the approval u/s 151 of the Act. Reliance in this regard has been placed on the decisions of Smt. Kalpana Shantilal Haria vs. ACIT W.P (L) No.3063/2017, order dated 22.12.2017 (Bom); Best Cybercity India P. Ltd. vs. ITO (2019) 414 ITR 385 (Del); Omkam Developers Ltd. vs. ITO, ITA No.6862/Del/2018, order dated 11.05.2021; M/s VRC Township P. Ltd. vs. ITO, ITA No.1503/Del/2017 dated 14.10.2020; M/s Maheshwari Roller Flour Mills P. Ltd. vs. ITO, ITA No.4257/Del/2019 dated 17.12.2020; and Madhu Apartments P. Ltd. vs. ITO, ITA Nos.3869-3870/Del/2018, order dated 01.02.2021. Therefore, the ld. AR submitted that impugned reassessment proceedings and reassessment order may kindly be quashed as proposition rendered by above noted orders including order of coordinate Bench of ITAT Delhi in the case of Omkam Developers Ltd. (supra). 5. The ld counsel al....
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....nces, similar legal contention was placed before the 'E' Bench which was adjudicated as follows:- "10. We have heard rival submission of the parties on the issue in dispute raised in the cross appeals. As far as ground No. 1 of the appeal of the assessee is concerned, the assessee has challenged the validity of the reassessment proceeding on the ground that approval for issue of the notice under section 148 of the Act was granted by the LearnedPr.CIT in a mechanical manner and without application of mind and, therefore, reassessment proceeding must be quashed. For adjudicating this issue, the reasons recorded by the Assessing Officer and relevant proforma of approval granted by the Pr. CIT are reproduced as under: "Reason for the belief that income has escaped assessment in the case of M/s, Omkam Developers Pvt. Ltd. A.Y. 2009-10 (Pan:AAACQ5036B) 1. Name & Address of the Assessee : M/s Omkam Developers Ltd, 702, Arunachal Building, 19, Barakhamba, Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi 2. Assessment Year 2009-10 3. Financial Year 2008-09 4. PAN AAACO05036B PUC is a proposal for reopening the case under section 147 of the Act ....
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.....Y.-2008-09: The cash deposited were swiftly Transferred to other entities through Cheques/RTGS. These-6 entities are proprietorships. The detail is given as per Annexure-C. The funds from other entities through Cheques/RTGS were also received in these accounts. The details of another 21 proprietorships given are STR is as per Annexure-C1. II. II. The find from the entities mentioned in Annexure-C and C1 were transferred to a number of entities which are mostly entities already identified as the companies controlled by the entry operators, few of them have been listed in Annexure-1. III. The fund was rotated among the entities detailed in Annexure-C, C1 and Annexure-1] IV. There were 6 Bank Accounts Belonging to 6 Companies in which funds were received from mostly entities discussed in Annexure-C, C1 and Annexure-1 and the same was swiftly transferred to the other entities (Mostly Companies). The details of 6 such companies are given in Annexure -5 V. The fund was transferred to the entities which are the real beneficiary of the funds from the companies mentioned in Annexure-S. The details of such, companies are given in Annexure -B. Mod....
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....unaccounted income. I have reasons to believe that an amount of Rs. 1.93 crores has escaped from the Assessment for the A.Y. 2009-10 which was chargeable to tax. I am also satisfied that on account of failure on the part of the assessee to I disclose truly and fully all the material facts necessary for assessment for the j above assessment year, the income chargeable to tax to the tune of Rs. 193.00 Lakh as escaped assessment with the meaning of Section 147 of the IT Act 1961 I have perused the information received from the Investigation Wing, Kolkata The Investigation Wing of the Department has sent comprehensive detail comprising inter alia the beneficiary's name, value of entry taken etc. In the aforesaid case as per record from ITD, return of income was filed on declaring Rs. 2,389/- income, it is noticed that the assessee company M/s Omkam Developers Ltd, received accommodation entries to the tune of Rs. 1.93, crores during the F.Y. 2008-09 relevant to assessment year 2009-10 from the entry operators as mentioned in the chart above and same was not offered for taxation. Having perused and considered the information, I have reason to beli....
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.... of an approval by a high-ranking officer. Thus, in the instant case, mere mentioning of "yes' for approval, without any other evidence of application of the mind, amounts to mechanical approval by the LearnedPr.CIT. 10.2 Further in Column No. 7 of the proforma, the section for invoking reassessment has been recorded as 147(b) of the Act. During the relevant period, section 147(b) was no longer in existence. This shows that the Ld. AO has filed the Proforma in mechanically manner and Ld. CIT has also approved the same mechanically. In the case of Madhu Apartment Private Limited vs. ITO, ITA.Nos.3869 & 3870/Del./2018 wherein the Tribunal, Delhi Bench, vide order dated 01/02/2021 held as under: "7. After considering the rival submissions, we are of the view that the issue is covered by the Order of ITAT, Delhi G-Bench, Delhi in the case of VRC Township Pvt. Ltd., Delhi (supra) in which reopening of the assessment in identical circumstances was held to be bad in law and sanction accorded by the Sanctioning Authority was also found invalid, therefore, reopening of the assessment was quashed. In the present case, the Learned Counsel for the Assessee has pointed-out....
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....did not dispute that in the column No.7, the AO mentioned that the provision of section 147(b) of the Act is applicable. For the sake of completeness, the said format is being reproduced below:- 10. Therefore, it is clear that the AO, in the first page of reasons (supra) mentioned in column 7 that provisions of section 147(b) is applicable which is non-existent in the statute book for AY 2010-11. This apparently shows non-application of mind by the AO while filling proforma in a mechanical manner and the ld. ACIT and Ld. PCIT also approved the same in a mechanical manner. So far as the contention of the ld. Sr. DR that this defect is curable u/s 292B of the Act is concerned, this contention was decided by the ITAT Delhi Bench in the case of Madhu Apartments India Pvt. Ltd., ITA No.3869 & 3870/Del/2018, order dated 01.02.2021, the relevant part of which has already been reproduced in the earlier part of this order since the same was referred to and included in the relevant part of the order of the ITAT in the case of Omkam Developers Ltd. (supra). Therefore, respectfully following the order of ITAT Delhi Bench in the case of Omkam Developers Ltd. vs. ITO (supra) and Madhu A....
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....9 ft the sapweg to nam Not in the hogithub Please stace NA NA Undir Assessment Tal The income originally estosmed uitwhether it is cass ol under asiestment, made this subject at oudettive relial dr addwing of 11 whether the provisions of sec. 150;3] are applicable, W brought ou so that prousidrs off gerileme :30(2) would No Reasons for the Sicher that income hal escapea atlasmont whether the Addi CHf is samelied on the restons As per a: det sheet dated lucarne Tax Oficer Wand: 19(3), New Delhi 1 WElettesl'e Er. Cff is sanslied on the reasons recorded By the ITC that it is a fat case lesue of coffee under 16/3/16 whether the provisions of sec. 150;3] are applicable, W brought ou so that prousidrs off gerileme :30(2) would Document 2 Form for recording the reasons for initiating proceedings ule (48 mod for obtaining Approval of the 2r. Commissioner od Inome Tax Dichi-8. New Delhi 1. |Napse & Address of the Assasite 206. 1, Boliaturkhih Zaên Marg New Dell! TIANT Sertar Company 4 ITO, Wan-21(3).N. Belki Assessment Year in respect of which it is proposed to Istun notice w's 148 2010-11 6 The quantura of jacome which has escaped assassi....