Commissioner of Income Tax vs Vinod Swarupchandra Mehta

The following question is proposed for admission of this appeal:

Whether the Appellate Tribunal is right in law and on facts in confirming the order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) in deleting the addition of Rs. 18,00,000 made by the Assessing Officer u/s 68 of the Act, in respect of unaccounted cash credit?

The Tribunal has considered the issue as under:

Learned authorised representative as well as the learned Departmental representative both were fair enough to concede the position that this issue is duly covered by the decision of this Tribunal at I.T.A. No. 1365/RJT/05 in which this Tribunal vide its order dated August 31, 2006, has restored this issue back to the file of the Assessing Officer by observing as under:

In view of the above facts and respectfully following the above decision of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, it is held that the impugned loans cannot be considered as income of the appellant. Accordingly, the addition of Rs. 10,00,000 in the hand so far as the appellant is directed to be deleted. We find that the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) has not verified the fact that Shri Anupchand Morabia has paid the tax before the Settlement Commission. Therefore, we restore this issue to the file of Assessing Officer for limited purpose. That is verify the fact that Mr. Morabia has paid the tax thereon or not. If Shri Morabia has paid the tax before the Settlement Commission this matter is restored for this limited purpose. If Mr. Morabia has not paid a tax, a matter may be decided as per law.

Respectfully following the aforesaid decision specially the fact that there is no distinguishing in the fact in this case as compared to the fact in the case of Hotel City Plaza, we restore this issue to the file of the Assessing Officer for limited purpose to verify that Mr. Morabia had paid tax on a sum of Rs. 18 lakhs or not. If Mr. Morabia had paid the tax before the Settlement Commission, the addition should be deleted. If the tax had not been paid, the matter may be decided in accordance with law. Thus the appeal is allowed for statistical purpose.

Admittedly, the matter has been restored back to the Assessing Officer to verify and decide the issue afresh in accordance with law. Hence, there is no merit in the appeal. Appeal stands dismissed.