Penalty for concealment of Income can not leviable for Voluntary disclosure of Income after receipt of questionnaire in the absence of any detection or information in possession of the Revenue-
CIT Vs. Harnarai (Delhi High Court)- Word ‘concealment’ requires there to be a deliberate act on the part of the assessee, and the concealment inherently carries with it the element of mens rea. It was further observed that a mere omission from return of any item of receipt does neither amount to concealment nor deliberate furnishing of inaccurate particulars of income unless and until there is some evidence to show or some circumstance found from which it can be gathered that the omission was attributable to an intention or desire on the part of the assessee to hide or conceal the income so as to avoid imposition of tax thereupon. It was also held by the Supreme Court that before a penalty under Section 271(1)(c) is imposed it has to be established that the assessee had consciously made the concealment or furnished inaccurate particulars of income.
Where assessee surrenders his full income, though at a later stage, there was no question of any concealment on his part and consequently no penalty under Section 271(1)(c) was leviable, and that a omission from return of income did not amount to concealment.
In view of the discussion above and the cited decisions, surrender of the amount by the Assessee after receipt of the questionnaire could not lead to an inference that it was not voluntary, in the absence of any material on record to suggest that it was bogus or untrue. It is further evident that there was neither any detection nor any information in the possession of the Revenue which might lead to a conclusion that there was a detection by the Revenue of concealment. Accordingly, the question of law framed is answered against the Revenue and in favour of the Assessee.
