PCIT Vs Rohit Karan Jain (Gauhati High Court)
Gauhati High Court held that addition merely on the basis of retracted statement without any other relied upon evidence/ material is not sustainable since retracted statement cannot be termed as incriminating material. Hence, appeal of revenue dismissed.
Facts- A search and seizure operation u/s. 132 of the Income Tax Act was conducted on the residential premises of the sole respondent on 02.06.2016 and thereafter, in continuation of that, on 11.07.2016 again a search was conducted.
On the basis of the search results, the case was selected for scrutiny u/s. 153A of the Income Tax Act and a notice was issued to the sole respondent. Ultimately, AO has issued Assessment Order dated 31.12.2018 and assessed the income of the assessee at Rs.4,25,30,080/-.
CIT(A) allowed the appeal. Being aggrieved, revenue has preferred the present appeal.
Conclusion- Held that the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) as well as ITAT, after carefully scrutinizing the material collected by the Assessing Officer, has recorded a finding of the fact that other than the retracted statement no other evidence/material was relied upon by the Assessing Officer to invoke the addition. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) and the ITAT were of the view that the said piece of evidence, i.e. retracted statement cannot be termed as incriminating material.
