Reopening under section 147 For Lapse Of AO Invalid – Delhi High Court

Atma Ram Properties Pvt Ltd vs. DCIT (Delhi High Court)- In the present case, as already noticed, the Income Tax Officer, Azamgarh, subsequent to the completion of the original assessment proceedings,  on making an enquiry from the jurisdictional   Income-tax  Officer at  Calcutta, learnt that the Calcutta company from whom the assessee claimed to have borrowed the loan of Rs. 50,000 in cash had not really lent any money but only its name to cover up a bogus transaction and, after recording his satisfaction as required by the provisions of section 147 of the Act, proposed to reopen the assessment proceedings.

The present is thus not a case where the Income‑tax Officer sought to draw any fresh inference which could have been raised at the time of the original assessment on the basis of the material placed before him by the assessee relating to the loan from the Calcutta company and which he failed to draw at that time. Acquiring fresh information, specific in nature and reliable in character, relating to the concluded assessment which goes to expose the falsity of the statement made by the assessee at the time of the original assessment is different from drawing a fresh inference from the same facts and material which were available with the Income-tax Officer at the time of the original assessment proceedings. The two situations are distinct and different. Thus, where the transaction itself, on the           basis of subsequent information, is found to be a bogus transaction, the mere disclosure of that transaction at the time of original assessment proceedings cannot be said to be a disclosure of the “true” and “full” facts in the case and the Income-tax Officer would have the jurisdiction to reopen the concluded assessment in such a case. It is correct that the assessing authority could have deferred the completion of the original assessment proceedings for further enquiry and investigation into the genuineness of the loan transaction but, in our opinion, his failure to do so and complete the original assessment proceedings would not take away his jurisdiction to act under section 147 of the Act, on receipt of the information subsequently. The subsequent information on the basis of which the Income Tax Officer acquired reasons to believe that income chargeable to tax had escaped assessment on account of the omission of the assessee to make a full and true disclosure of the primary facts was relevant, reliable and specific. It was not at all vague or non-specific.”