Commissioner of Income Tax vs Bansal Rice and General Mills

G.S. Singhvi, J.—In this appeal filed u/s 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short "the Act"), the appellant has sought determination of the following questions of law :

"(i) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal was right in law in deleting the addition of Rs. 2,65,000 made on account of low yield of rice and its by-products and also deleting the addition of Rs. 25,000 confirmed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), in the rice account ?

(ii) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and the detailed reasons discussed in the assessment order, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal was right in law in coming to the conclusion that there was no justification on the part of the tax authorities to apply the provisions of Section 145(2) which was upheld by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) ?"

A perusal of the record shows that in respect of the assessment year 1989.90, the return filed by the respondent-assessee was not accepted by the assessing authority who made additions to the tune of Rs. 2,90,000 on the ground that the assessee''s account suffered from various defects. It observed that no day-to-day stock tally for phak, husk and driage had been maintained, actual weighment of paddy issued for milling was not done and no record of dirt, dust and other impurities had been maintained. The assessing authority also initiated penalty proceedings u/s 271(1)(c) of the Act. In the appeal, the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Patiala (for short, "the CIT (Appeals)"), partly reversed the order of the assessing authority and made deletion to the extent of Rs. 2,65,000. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench (for short, "the Tribunal"), dismissed the appeal filed by the Revenue and upheld the order passed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals).

Shri R. P. Sawhney argued that the view taken by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) and the Tribunal suffers from an error of law, inasmuch as, neither of them has given reason for substantially deleting the additions made by the assessing authority. However, he candidly admitted that I. T. C. No. 81 of 1999 Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Bharat Rice Mills, in which similar questions were sought by the Revenue has been dismissed by this court.

We have gone through the order passed by this court in I. T. C. No. 81 of 1999 Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Bharat Rice Mills, and the record of this case and are of the view that no question of law arises for consideration by this court in the present appeal. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) has given detailed reasons for setting aside the additions made by the assessing authority and the Tribunal has given its independent reasons for affirming the appellate order. Therefore, I do not find any valid ground to entertain this appeal more so because in I. T. C. No. 81 of 1999 Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Bharat Rice Mills, , the court has already declined the Revenue''s prayer for directing the Tribunal to refer similar questions for the opinion of this court.

Hence, the appeal is dismissed.