Giriraj Pugalia Vs ACIT (Rajasthan High Court)
Rajasthan High Court held that initiation of proceedings under section 153C of the Income Tax Act based on WhatsApp chats with specific inputs cannot be said to be vague or hit by the strict parameters of Section 153C of the Income Tax Act.
Facts- Petitioner was served notice dated 16.06.2023 u/s. 153C of the Income Tax Act based on the search and seizure action conducted upon Om Kothari Group.
Notably, the satisfaction note indicated that during the course of search proceedings, it came to the notice that there were certain WhatsApp chats between the Directors and Associates of the Om Kothari Group, vide which an inference was drawn that certain plots have been purchased by the petitioner from Om Metal Infotech Private Limited (a group concern of Om Kothari Group), and towards such purchase, the petitioner paid money in cash, which were not recorded in the books of account. Except for such WhatsApp chats, no other incriminating document was found against the petitioner, when the search and seizure in question took place.
Conclusion- Held that the law regarding Section 153C of the Act of 1961 has a foundation of the search and seizure impact, the ‘other person’ and the record of the present case clearly indicates that the WhatsApp chat is completely corroborated, and the said Chat which could be considered to be falling in the definition of other documents totally corroborated by the specific transactions which have taken place regarding the assessee viz. petitioner-Giriraj Pungalia, Proprietor of M/s. Ratan Industries who had clearly purchased the plots No.SP 818-(II)-3 & 818-(II)-4 from the Om Kothari Group; such sale and purchase is directly established with specific information in a particular year whereas it has not been shown by the assessee and thus, the power under Section 153C of the Act of 1961 has been rightly exercised by the respondent in the present case.
