2009 (12) TMI 214

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..... ucted inquiry in the hospitals about the payments made to the assessee and got full information about the number of surgeries attended by the assessee. He therefore, reopened the assessment under section 147 and issued revised assessment. The finding of the lower authorities was wrong. Therefore, the reopening of assessment was valid and within time.
C. N. RAMACHANDRAN NAIR and V. K. MOHANAN JJ. P. K. R. Menon and Jose Joseph for the appellant. T. M. Sreedharan, V. P. Narayanan and Smt. C. K Sherin for the respondent. JUDGMENT The judgment of the court was delivered by 1. C. N. RAMACHANDRAN NAIR J. - The appeals are filed by the Revenue against the orders of the Tribunal holding that reassessments completed in the assessee's case un .....

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..... on the gi of limitation con tending that the Assessing Officer had no materials. The first appellate authority as well as the Tribunal upheld the claim of the assessee and can celled the assessments as time barred. It is seen that the Tribunal has relied on some decisions of the Supreme Court in respect of the unamended provisions of section 147(a) of the Income-tax Act. The standing counsel relied on a later decision of the Supreme Court on the amended provision reported in Asst. CIT v. Rajesh Jhaveri Stock Brokers P. Ltd. [2007] 291 ITR 500 wherein the Supreme Court has held as follows (headnote): "The expression 'reason to believe' in section 147 would mean cause or justification. If the Assessing Officer has cause or justification to .....

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..... the Act. In our view, the finding of the first appellate authority as well as the Tribunal that the Assessing Officer had no material to believe that the income assessable has escaped is wrong and contrary to facts. The Tribunal has not cared to verify the records which contained the reasons recorded by the Assessing Officer for reopening the assessment. Admittedly, the assessee had not maintained any books of account, but was returning the income on estimation basis which was found to be incorrect based on the information collected from hospitals where he was practising. Therefore, we find that the reopening of assessments was perfectly valid and was within time. We, therefore, set aside the orders of the Tribunal and that of the first app .....

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