2012 (11) TMI 895 - HC - Income Tax

Validity of Reassessment proceedings - reason to believe additions on account of unexplained share capital - assessee had accepted the accommodation entries in the garb of share capital Held that - the reasons which persuaded the AO to reopen the reassessment proceedings and on the basis of which additions were made were not found valid or justifiable as those additions were deleted by the Tribunal. Since the grounds for reopening the reassessment do not exist any longer and no additions were ultimately made on that account, the additions in respect of other items which were not part of reasons to believe cannot be made. - Decided in favor of assessee.

Summary

Issues:
1. Validity of reopening reassessment proceedings based on accommodation entries.
2. Addition of unexplained share capital and other credits.
3. Appeal against additions made by the AO and CIT(A).
4. Tribunal's decision on the appeal.
5. Validity of additions not part of "reasons to believe."
6. Precedents cited by the High Court.

Detailed Analysis:
1. The judgment deals with the validity of reopening reassessment proceedings based on accommodation entries received by the assessee from various companies. The AO passed a reassessment order making additions on account of unexplained share capital, including capital from specific companies. The assessee filed a return declaring the same income as originally stated, leading to the reopening of the assessment under section 148 of the Income Tax Act.

2. The AO also made additions of credits received from other companies during the assessment proceedings, even though the assessment was not reopened based on those credits. The CIT(A) confirmed the additions related to unexplained share capital but deleted the additions from other companies. Both the assessee and the Revenue appealed against the CIT(A)'s orders.

3. The Tribunal allowed the assessee's appeal, thereby deleting the additions related to unexplained share capital. The Revenue did not appeal against this decision. Subsequently, the Revenue's appeal against the additions made by the AO, which were not part of the original reasons to believe, was dismissed by the Tribunal.

4. The Tribunal's decision to dismiss the Revenue's appeal was based on the fact that the reasons for reopening the reassessment no longer existed, as the additions were deleted by the Tribunal. Therefore, the Tribunal held that no substantial question of law arose in the appeal, leading to the dismissal of the appeal.

5. The High Court referred to precedents, including a judgment in the case of CIT vs. Jet Airways (I) Ltd., to support the decision that additions not part of the original reasons to believe cannot be made. Another judgment in the case of Ranbaxy vs. CIT was cited to reinforce this view, agreeing with the position taken by the High Court of judicature at Bombay.

6. In conclusion, the High Court dismissed the appeal, emphasizing that since no substantial question of law arose and the additions not part of the original reasons to believe were deleted, the reassessment proceedings were not valid. The judgment relied on precedents to support this decision.