Vikas Jain Vs DCIT (ITAT Delhi)
ITAT Delhi Nixes 153C Addition: No 65B Certificate, No Case- Seized Mobile Image Fails Legal Test -Cash Addition Based on Phone Scribble Quashed
ITAT Delhi set aside an addition of ₹24,50,000 made u/s 69C in the case of Vikas Jain pursuant to proceedings initiated u/s 153C on the basis of an image retrieved from the mobile phone of a searched person belonging to Seven Seas Hospitality Pvt Ltd. AO had treated the scribbled noting as evidence of cash paid for a marriage function and, relying on cheque payment of ₹6,07,500, presumed balance cash of ₹24,50,000 as unexplained expenditure. Assessee denied any such cash payment and submitted that only cheque payment for the marriage function held on 04.03.2017 was made and fully disclosed.
Tribunal noted that the satisfaction note was recorded mechanically, the date of marriage itself was wrong, and the document relied upon was an electronic record without the mandatory certificate u/s 65B of the Evidence Act, making it inadmissible. Relying on its earlier decision in Anil Kumar Gupta Vs ACIT (10.01.2025) and the Supreme Court ruling in Arjun Panditrao Khotkar, Tribunal held that without a valid 65B certificate, the seized electronic image could not form the basis of jurisdiction u/s 153C or of any addition. Consequently, the very initiation of 153C proceedings stood vitiated. Tribunal therefore set aside the orders of the AO & CIT(A) and allowed grounds on jurisdiction. Since the 153C assumption itself failed, other grounds were left open and the appeal was allowed.
