Buniya Amin Vs ITO (ITAT Jaipur)
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal examined an appeal arising from an addition of ₹76,31,100 made under Section 69A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, on account of unexplained cash de-posits for the assessment year 2017–18. The Assessing Officer had reopened the assessment after re-ceiving information about cash deposits of ₹32,46,300 in one bank account. During reassessment pro-ceedings, it emerged that the assessee allegedly maintained two additional savings bank accounts, re-sulting in total cash deposits of ₹76,31,100 across three accounts. As the assessee failed to respond to notices issued under Sections 148 and 148A(d) and did not participate in the assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer treated the entire amount as unexplained money.
The assessee challenged the assessment before the first appellate authority. Although the appeal was filed with a delay of 135 days, the delay was condoned and the matter was decided on merits. Before the appellate authority, the assessee claimed to be an agriculturist running a small kirana business and contended that he held only one account with the cooperative bank and one with the State Bank, while specifically denying ownership of one cooperative bank account in which ₹33,01,300 had been deposit-ed. He further claimed that the deposits were made out of withdrawals from his own accounts and in-come from agriculture and business.
