TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (12) TMI 355
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.... ITAT failed to consider that the provisions of section 153A mandate that once the cases fall within the meaning of section 153A, the AO shall compute total income of the assessee which may be computed from known and unknown sources of income whether disclosed by the assessee or otherwise unidentified or finding or mentioning the incriminating material or otherwise. ii. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, u/s. 153A or 153C of the Act, the Assessing Officer is not eligible to bring to tax all the Income which was hitherto untaxed besides the Income detected on account of search conducted u/s. 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961? iii. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the Hon'ble ITAT erred, in not considering that the HSBC Bank, Geneva refuse to divulge any information about Sulay Tading Ltd. and Laptis Trading Ltd. and the assessee being beneficial owner of such accounts citing Swiss secrecy laws. iv. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the ITAT erred in not considering that the Base Note as received from French Authorities, the statement of the assessee re....
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.... HSBC Bank (Suisse) SA Geneva or being the beneficial owner of such accounts, in recording of his statement under Section 132(4) of the Income Tax Act. However, merely on the basis of base note, the Assessing Officer was of the opinion that the assessee was one of the beneficiaries of the bank accounts, as set out in the assessment order. It also needs to be observed that the assessee in supporting his case of having no connection with such bank accounts produced a letter from HSBC Bank (Suisse) SA Geneva, stating that the assessee had no bank account in the said bank nor had any transactions with the said bank. The department had also made queries with the said Bank, inquiring whether the assessee was beneficial owner in respect of the four accounts held by the companies. In response to such inquiries, HSBC Bank (Suisse) SA Geneva, confirmed the said letter as having been issued by it, as furnished by the assessee before the Assessing Officer. It appears that during the course of assessment proceedings, the assessee was examined on oath by the Assessing Officer under Section 131 of the Act on three occasions and was confronted with the information as contained in the base note abo....
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....l owner of bank accounts in HSBC Bank (Suisse) SA Geneva, Switzerland were found. It was also observed that the assessee also denied in the statement recorded under Section 132(4) of the Income Tax Act before the Assessing Officer that he was in any manner the beneficial owner of the foreign bank accounts. For such reasons, the tribunal was of the opinion that during the course of search, as no incriminating material was found by the search team and the addition which was made by the Assessing Officer and as confirmed by the CIT (Appeals) being founded only on the base note, which was being considered to be incriminating material, was not an acceptable approach on the part of the department. The tribunal thus considered whether the base note or statements recorded during search under Section 132(4) of the Act or material gathered during post search proceedings could constitute incriminating materials found during search or not. The tribunal in such context considering the position in law in this regard in the decisions as noted by it, has reached to a conclusion that the course of action as adopted by the Assessing Officer and as confirmed by the CIT (Appeals) was not sustainable b....
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.... namely the Gujarat High Court, Delhi High Court, this Court, Karnataka High Court, Orissa High Court, Calcutta High Court, Rajasthan High Court, and the Kerala High Court as set out in paragraph 7 of the said decision and examining the provisions of Section 153(A) of the Income Tax Act as also, in the context of the search action taken under Section 132 has held that when no incriminating material was unearthed during the search, the Assessing Officer cannot assess or reassess income taking into consideration other materials in respect of completed assessment / unabated assessments. It was held that in respect of completed / unabated assessments, no addition can be made by the AO in the absence of any incriminating material found during the course of search under Section 132 or requisition under Section 132A of the Income-tax Act. The Supreme Court held that however, the completed/unabated assessment can be re-opened by the AO only in exercise of powers under Section 147/148 of the Income Act. Such is not the case in the present proceedings. The relevant observations as made by the Court are required to be noted which read thus:- "12. If the submission on behalf of the Re....