PCIT and Another Vs Ankur Mittal (Allahabad High Court)
The Revenue challenged the ITAT order affirming the NFAC’s decision deleting additions made in a fresh assessment for AY 2017-18. The original reassessment under Sections 147/143(3) was revised under Section 263, with the Principal Commissioner directing a fresh assessment after obtaining certificates from the APMC/Mandi Samiti to certify the genuineness of Form 6R relied upon by the assessee.
In the fresh assessment, the Assessing Officer neither obtained the certificates nor required the assessee to produce them. Instead, while again accepting the purchases evidenced by Form 6R, the Assessing Officer made an addition of ₹12,12,46,867 under Section 69C towards cash payments exceeding ₹20,000. The NFAC held that the addition travelled beyond the scope of the Section 263 directions and deleted it. It also found that the assessee had furnished Form 6R, maintained audited books, produced evidence of payment of Mandi Shulk and Vikash Shulk, and that the purchases from farmers in the APMC Mandi could not be doubted. The ITAT upheld these findings.
Before the High Court, the Revenue contended that the directions issued under Section 263 had not been complied with and that the appellate authorities ought to have independently examined the issue. The assessee submitted that Form 6R constituted statutory evidence of the transactions, that no statutory requirement existed for additional certification, and that if the Revenue was aggrieved by the fresh assessment order, its remedy was to seek another revision rather than an appeal.
