9911796707
TMI Blog1985 (11) TMI 83X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat the same belonged to his father-in-law Geeta Ram Mahajan, who was an agriculturist holding 25 acres of land. Since this fact was not disclosed by the assessee earlier, action was taken under section 148 of the Act, in response to which return of income was filed on 7-3-1983 and besides attacking section 148 notice issued in consequence to section 147(a) proceedings, the assessee contended that the said money belonged to his father-in-law and on maturity of the said deposit, it was given to him in 1977, since father-in-law was no more. He got his brother-in-law, i.e., first son of Geeta Ram, whose name is Mata Nand, examined, who corroborated the contention made by the assessee but submitted that the land owned by his father was only 11 1/4 acres. It was also pointed out that out of the total land, only 2 1/2 acres was irrigated by canal. The ITO considering the same to be cock and bull story, rejected both the contentions of the assessee regarding initiation of proceedings under section 147(a) and also the submissions made by the assessee on merit regarding deposit of Rs. 40,000. 3. When the matter came before the AAC, he confirmed the action of the ITO in respect of both reg ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... stablished by the assessee and, therefore, addition of Rs. 40,000 was rightly sustained. He submitted that subsequently even if the transaction was benami in the course of disclosing full and true facts, at least a note to that effect should have been given by the assessee. 6. After taking into consideration the rival submissions, we are unable to accept any of the contentions raised by the learned counsel for the assessee and we are of the view that the order of the AAC does not call for any interference. Before the assessment was framed, copy of reasons was never demanded by the assessee, as is apparent from the relevant date of order dated 21-7-1983 whereas reasons for reopening was demanded by him subsequently, i.e., on 3-1-1984, as is apparent from the papers placed before us. From the reasons recorded, extracted and placed below, it is apparent that the same are under section 147(a): "Reasons under section 147(a) During the 'previous year' relevant to the assessment year 1975-76, the assessee was serving with R.R.S.D. College, Kaithal. He also deposited Rs. 40,000 as fixed deposit with State Bank of India, Kaithal, on 22-10-1974. In his statement dated 8-11-1982 before ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... er or further information or to produce evidence in support of any other matter which may ultimately be found to be relevant for the purpose of making an assessment in his case...." But against this, we have the Punjab and Haryana High Court decision in the case of Kirpa Ram Ramji Dass. In the said case, their Lordships while dealing with initiation of proceedings mentioned about the meaning of the word 'fact', observed as under : "... The ordinary dictionary meanings of the word 'fact' are 'occurrence of event, things certainly known to have occurred or be true, reality; true or existent'. A particular transaction which has never taken place, cannot be held to be a disclosure of true facts. In such a case, it would be a mockery to hold that the assessee has made a full and true disclosure of facts. Thus, in such a case it is to be held that the disclosure made by the assessee is formal evidence of fictitious transactions which had never taken place and they are a mere cloak to cover up the facts. In such a case, the fullness and completeness of such a disclosure is immaterial. In fact the more copious the materials disclosed in a case like this, the more solid is the crust cov ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssary for his assessment for that year', used in section 34 postulated a duty on every assessee to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for his assessment. What facts were material and necessary for assessment differed from case to case. In every assessment proceeding, the assessing authority would, for the purpose of computing or determining the proper tax due from an assessee, require to know all the facts which help him in coming to the correct conclusion. From the primary facts in his possession, whether on disclosure by the assessee, or discovered, by him on the basis of the fact disclosed, or otherwise, the assessing authority had to draw inferences as regards certain other facts ; and ultimately from the primary facts and the further facts inferred from them, the authority had to draw the proper legal inferences, and ascertain, on a correct interpretation of the taxing enactment, the proper tax leviable. So far as primary facts were concerned, it was the assessee's duty to disclose all of them including particular entries in account books, particular portions of documents, and documents and other evidence which could have been discovered by the assessing aut ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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