Baby Naz Shoukat Shaikh Vs National Faceless Assessment Centre (ITAT Mumbai)
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Mumbai, partly allowed the assessee’s appeal concerning an addition of ₹75 lakh under Section 68 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 for Assessment Year 2013-14.
At the outset, the Tribunal condoned a delay of 447 days in filing the appeal. The assessee explained that the appellate order had been communicated to the email address of an ex-employee instead of the registered email address, resulting in lack of knowledge of the order. The Tribunal accepted the explanation as a reasonable cause and admitted the appeal.
The assessee had originally filed a return declaring income of ₹5,86,640. The case was selected for scrutiny to examine investments made in immovable properties. According to the Assessing Officer (AO), despite repeated notices seeking details and documentary evidence, the assessee failed to respond. Consequently, the AO completed the assessment under Section 144 on a best judgment basis. The AO found that the assessee had purchased two immovable properties and, since the source of investment was not explained, added ₹1.10 crore as unexplained investment under Section 69. An additional amount of ₹15,14,798 was added as unexplained cash credit under Section 68.
