9911796707
TMI Blog2014 (3) TMI 400X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Investigation Wing and in the books maintained by them it is noticed that Shri Vinay Kumar, i.e. the assessee herein paid a sum of Rs. 5,83,000/- in cash for admission of his son Shri Madhur Vora (it deserves to be noticed here that the cash payment appears to be in addition to the regular payment made by cheque). During the course of enquiries conducted by Addl. Director of Income Tax (Inv), Unit-I in D.Y. Patil group of cases one of the employee and Account Clerk, of M/s. Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology appears to have stated that receipts against the payments were maintained by them and the figures maintained in the diaries represent disbursements made against cash collection from the students at the time of their admission. Based on the same, proceedings appears to have been initiated in D.Y. Patil group of cases, which was ultimately settled before the Settlement Commission wherein the institutions appeared to have accepted this amount as cash donation. It is not known as to whether they have declared it as undisclosed income or not, since the order passed by the Settlement Commission or the orders passed by the Assessing Officers in the aforementioned cases are not p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng made any payment by way of donation. He also submitted that no adverse inference can be made against him in respect of cash payment based on the three dumb documents which in no way show that the assessee, in fact, made the payment. The AO, however, proceeded to make an addition merely based upon the aforementioned three documents without furnishing any material to the assessee and without giving the assessee an opportunity to examine the persons who have made the statements or to cross verify the veracity of the so called documents. The emphasis of the AO was more on the fact that the documents seized during the search and there are diary entries bearing the name of the assessee and the amount is shown to have been paid by him in cash, but despite several opportunities the assessee was not able to prove his innocence. Having mentioned so he made an addition of Rs. 3,91,000/-, under section 69C of the Act, which is the difference between the total cash said to have been received from the assessee, as reflected in the diary entries found in the premises of the D.Y. Patil group, and the actual cheque payment made by the assessee. 6. Aggrieved, assessee challenged the order passed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pport of the said plea the learned counsel adverted our attention to page 35 of the paper book. He submitted that there is no other material to indicate that the AO has independently applied his mind. However, as could be noticed from page 38 of the paper book the AO has furnished reasons for reopening of the assessment which would clearly show that he has independently arrived at a prima facie conclusion/belief that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment and, therefore, there was a need for reopening of assessment. Under these circumstances the learned counsel for the assessee did not seriously pursued his contention with regard to validity of reopening of assessment but confined to the merits of the addition by submitting that the assessee had consistently taken a stand before the AO that only a sum of Rs. 1,92,000/- was paid by cheque. It is not known as to why a sum of Rs. 5,83,000/- shown to have been recorded in the diary maintained by the Accountant of Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology is sought to be added in the hands of the assessee. The AO refused to furnish the details except the three documents which only refers to certain figures and there is nothing in the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ehalf the learned D.R. is appearing. The learned D.R. could not furnish the contents of the assessment made in the case of D.Y. Patil group or the reasons recorded in the Settlement Commission's order. It is not known as to whether the D.Y. Patil group has accepted the cash entries as unexplained income in their hands or claimed it as donations received from students. The learned D.R. was blissfully unaware of the number of students from whom the D.Y. Patil group was supposed to have collected donations and if the amount is collected from more than one student what was the status in other cases. No material, whatsoever, could be placed before us to indicate that in the case of educational institutions it is a standard practice to collect donations and in fact donations were collected from several parties and some of them have accepted that they have made the payment and in respect of others proceedings were initiated by the Assessing Officer's concerned. It is also not known as to what the fee structure was in the relevant years and what was the standard donations collected. Other than what is stated in the orders of AO and CIT(A) the learned D.R. could not furnish any other materi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
