AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (1) TMI 1590
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....he Revenue carried out search and seizure action u/s 132 of the Act in the hands of Shri Pankaj Dhanji Goshar on 10-09-2015 and survey action u/s 133A of the Act in the hands of M/s Kalyanji Velji HUF. During the course of search and survey actions, it was noticed that M/s Kalyanji Velji HUF was developing a real estate project named Vishrani Niwas/Vivaria. Shri Pankaj D Goshar was acting as real estate consultant for the above projects. During the course of search action in the hands of Shri Pankaj D Goshar, certain details relating to the project developed by M/s Kalyanji Velji HUF were recovered from iphone 6 plus mobile of Shri Pankaj D Goshar. It contained details of payments received on sale of flats by way of cash. As per the observations made by the AO in AY 2010-11, the information found in the iphone disclosed that the Manania family has purchased two flats for an aggregate consideration of Rs. 19.50 crores, out of which the agreement value was shown as Rs. 7.00 crores and the cash component was shown as Rs. 12.50 crores. One flat was purchased in the name of Shri Jayesh Umakant Manania and another flat was purchased in the name of the assessee herein. (In ....
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....eived information about alleged cash payments from the documents recovered from the search conducted in the hands of Shri Pankaj Dhanji Goshar. Hence, the AO ought to have initiated proceedings u/s 153C of the Act. Accordingly, he submitted that the reopening of assessments of these three years is void ab initio and consequently, the impugned assessment orders are liable to be quashed. On merits, the Ld A.R submitted that the addition has been made on the basis of uncorroborated images found in the iphone of Shri Pankaj D Goshar, which has not been accepted by Shri Pankaj D Goshar, the developer M/s Kalyanji Velji HUF and the assessee. He submitted that income tax proceedings were initiated in the hands of M/s Kalyanji Velji HUF by reopening its assessments of AY 2010-11 to 2013-14 by issuing notices u/s 148 of the Act, on the basis of very same information recovered from the iphone of Shri Pankaj D Goshar during the course of search operations. The additions were made on the basis of very same details in the hands of M/s Kalyanji Velji HUF, since it was the recipient of alleged cash payments made by the assessee herein. Thus, the same materials were the basis of making addition in....
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....e that the revenue has reopened the assessment of M/s Kalyanji Velji HUF and also made additions in its hands on the basis of very same information found in the iphone of Shri Pankaj D Goshar. The said additions were disputed before the Tribunal by M/s Kalyaji Velji HUF and the co-ordinate bench has since adjudicated the issues by deleting the additions both on legal ground and on merits. We find that certain observations made by the Tribunal in the above said case on facts and merits of additions are relevant in this case. Accordingly, we extract relevant observations made by the Co-ordinate Bench:- "3.3 During the course of search action, page nos. 1 to 3 as per Annexure-1 were seized by the department, a copy of which was supplied to the assessee. The image of seized papers was also recovered from the mobile phone used by Shri Pankaj Goshar (PG) which was imaged in his presence by investigation wing using sophisticated forensic software. The image of above pages was present in the mobile phone of Pankaj Goshar in the folder named 'Umkant Manania'. It transpired that Shri Umakant Manania's family had booked two flats in the name of Shri Jayesh Umakant Manania....
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....terial required for construction, assisting the buyers and certifying bills for payments. Shri Pankaj Goshar also submitted that image found on the mobile was sent by somebody and wrongly stored in the folder. He also denied having undertaken any financial transaction with Shri Umakant Manania during last more than 10 years. Shri Nimesh Manania, upon cross examination, submitted as under: - I have agreed to purchase the flat in Vishrani Niwas at lumsum price of Rs. 3,50,00,000/- in the year 2012 necessary flat agreement has already registered on 18.12.2013. So far I have paid Rs. 50 lakhs by cheque in the month of April, 2012. Secondly I have not made any cash payment / on money payment towards purchase of flats to Kalyanji Velji (HUF) or Pankaj Goshar on behalf of Kalyanji Velji (HUF). Similar was the statement of Shri Jayesh Manania who denied having paid any cash payment / on money to the assessee. In nutshell, all the three parties denied having received or paid any cash against sale of the two flats. Shri Pankaj Goshar submitted that his entity was merely acting as project management consultant for the project. The two buyers denied having ....
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.... (c) Shri Pankaj D Ghoshar has also denied having undertaken financial transactions with Manania family. (d) The information found in the iphone was not corroborated with any other material. Hence it was a dumb document found at the premises of a third party. It can be noticed that the above mentioned reasoning given by the Co-ordinate Bench would equally apply to the present cases also. Even though the AO has observed that the details of sale of flats by M/s Kalyanji Velji HUF were found from M/s Krazee Properties P Ltd during the course of survey operation, yet it is not mentioned whether those information contained details of alleged cash transactions. In that case, the mere availability of details of flats sold in the projects developed by M/s Kalyanji Velji would not support the theory of cash transactions. Hence, it cannot be said that the information found in M/s Krazee Properties P Ltd would corroborate the images found in the iphone of Shri Pankaj D Goshar. 9. There is one more deficiency on the part of the AO in placing reliance on the information found in the iphone, which was an electronic device. We notice that the AO has not followed the procedure pres....