Shanti Lal Jain vs Commissioner of Income Tax

By this application filed u/s 256(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ''the Act''), the assessee-petitioner prayed that the Tribunal be directed to refer the following questions for the opinion of this court :

"1. Whether the order of the ITAT regarding the correctness of books of account is an order made without due consideration of the evidence and relevant material on record ?

Whether the ITAT was wrong in passing an order about the books of account though there being no material or evidence in its favour and that whether the findings of the Tribunal are not contrary to the evidence ?

3 Whether the Tribunal''s finding about the gold ornaments is not contrary to the evidence and, therefore, is perverse ?

Whether there is any nexus between the conclusion of the Tribunal and the primary facts placed by the applicant but not looked into by the Tribunal ?"

None appeared for the applicant. Mr. Singhi submits that Mr. Paras Kuhad has said that he has no instructions and he does not want to give appearance on behalf of the applicant.

The issue involved in the aforesaid questions pertains to the year 1983-84. There was a search and seizure in a group of cases headed by Shanti Lal Jain-the petitioner. During search, Rs. 1,90,738 were found, out of which Rs. 1,80,000 were seized. Silver bars weighing 98.393 kg. were also found and seized from the residential premises and bank lockers of the assessee. Gold ornaments weighing 2,182 grams were also found. It was claimed that they belong to different members of the family.

Considering the material on record, the books of account were rejected. Various additions were made on the basis of material found.

In appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals), the Commissioner (Appeals) has allowed the appeal in part giving some relief. The department as well as the assessee, both went in appeal before the Tribunal.

The Tribunal after considering the material on record, sustained some additions on different counts after rejecting the books of account maintained by the assessee. The Tribunal observed that while completing the assessment, the assessing officer had considered carefully all materials found during search and explanation of the assessee and he assessed income of the assessee at Rs. 6,32,250. The appeal filed by the department was rejected holding that there is nothing wrong in the order of the Commissioner (Appeals). It was also observed that in fact during search no regular books of account were found, and, therefore, there is no question of assessing the income on the basis of books of account subsequently produced.

Considering the material on record, itemwise additions were considered by the Tribunal taking into account the relevant material on record. Whether additions are justified or not that is based on the finding of fact and in case of some additions, the matter has been referred back to the Income Tax Officer for fresh decision. In this view of the fact and after perusal of the orders of the authorities below, we find that the finding of the Tribunal regarding finding of fact is not perverse and issue involved in the questions proposed is basically based on the finding of fact.

Considering the findings and reasons given by the Tribunal, no case is made out for direction to the Tribunal to refer the questions proposed in the application filed u/s 256(2) as the finding of the Tribunal is not perverse.

In the result, the application filed u/s 256(2) is rejected.