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TMI Blog2014 (2) TMI 260X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aken by the assessee. For the sake of convenience, the grounds of appeals for assessment year 2000-01 as well as cross objections for assessment year 2000-01 are reproduced below:- I.T.A. No.3720/Del/2010 (A.Y. 2000-2000-01): 1. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the CIT(A) has erred in law and facts in annulling the assessment made u/s 153C. 2. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the CIT(A) has erred in law and facts by holding that the seized documents on the basis of which proceedings u/s 153C were initiated do ot belong to the assessee. 3. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the CIT(A) has erred in interpreting section 153A/153C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 . 4. The order of CIT(A) is er ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of Section 153A( 1) of the Act. 7. That the assessment as contemplated u/ s 153A of the Act is not a denovo assessment and additions made therein have to be necessarily restricted to undisclosed income unearthed during the search. 8. That as per Hon'ble Supreme Court ruling in the case of Manish Maheshwari, 289 ITR 341 (SC), present provision of Section 153A leading to six years assessment, being drastic in consequence needs to be interpreted most strictly and whenever possible to the favour of the assessee. 9. That since longest arm of revenue, being search stands exercised in present case, assessment u/s 153C/ 153A of the Act needs to be made on the basis of hidden assets/unaccounted money, incriminating material, unearthed during ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... appeals before Ld CIT(A) and challenged the validity of assessment u/s 153A by taking an additional ground on legal issue and submitted that proceedings u/s 153C of the Act were initiated on the basis of certain documents which did not belong to the assessee. Therefore, the proceedings itself were not legal. The Ld CIT(A) on the basis of this legal ground annulled the assessment made by the Assessing Officer by observing as under:- "The perusal of the satisfaction record before issuing the notice u/s 153C of the Act makes it clear that the documents claimed as belonging to the appellant have not been discussed in the assessment order. The assessment order reveals that a cursory reference has been made to certain documents seized during the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct says that if valuable or books of accounts or documents belonging to such other person are seized then the proceedings u/s 153C of the Act can be initiated against such other person. On the touchstone of the ratio laid down in the decisions of the Hon'ble ITAT discussed in earlier paras, it is held that the documents seized do not belong to the appellant and the Assessing Officer was not justified in initiating the proceedings u/s 153C read with section 153A of the Act and as such the proceedings initiated u/s 153C of the Act are not as per the law. The assessment made u/s 153A read with section 153C of the Act cannot stand of its own and hence the same is cancelled." 5. Aggrieved, the revenue is in appeal before us. 6. At the outset, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... elonged to assessee or not and simply cancelled the assessment holding that documents did not belong to assessee as the Assessing Officer had not made any addition on the basis of these documents. In our considered opinion., section 153C is triggered when the documents or any money or bullion belonging to another person is recovered from the premises of person searched and assessment has to be made as per the provisions of the section 153A of the Act. The Assessing Officer has referred to a number of documents which were recovered during search and seizure operations but has not mentioned the nature of documents. The Ld CIT(A) has cancelled the assessments holding that documents did not belong to assessee. However, documents as pointed out ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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