Point of Law: Assessment of income of any other person 153C-[(1)] Notwithstanding anything contained in section 139, section 147, section 148, section 149, section 151 and section 153, where the Assessing Officer is satisfied that any money, bullion, jewellery or other valuable article or thing or books of account or documents seized or requisitioned a person other than the person referred to in section 153A, then the books of account or documents or assets seized or requisitioned shall be handed over to the Assessing Officer having jurisdiction over such other person [and that Assessing Officer shall proceed against each such other person and issue notice and assess or reassess the income of the other person in accordance with the provisions of section 153A, if, that Assessing Officer is satisfied that the books of account or documents or assets seized or requisitioned have a bearing on the determination of the total income of such other person for the relevant assessment year or years referred to in subsection (1) of section 153A

JUDGMENT :

(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE J.B.PARDIWALA)

1. Since the issues raised in both the captioned writ applications are the same and the reasons assigned for the reopening of the assessment are also the same, those were heard analogously and are being disposed of by this common judgment and order.

2. For the sake of convenience, the Special Civil Application No. 17557 of 2018 is treated as the lead matter.

3. By way of this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the writ applicants have prayed for the following reliefs:

“(A) This Hon'ble Court be pleased to call for the records of the proceedings, look into them and be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction quashing the impugned 148 notice dated 05.03.2018 at Annexure-A and objection order dated 19.09.2018 at Annexure- E.

(B) This Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction asking the respondent not to proceed further in pursuance of Section 148 notice at Annexure- A and objection order at Annexure - E.

(C) Pending the hearing and final disposal of this application, this Hon'ble Court be pleased to stay further proceedings in pursuance of section 148 notice at Annexure-A.

(D) This Hon'ble Court be pleased to grant any further or other relief as this Hon'ble Court deems just and proper in the interest of justice, and

(E) This Hon'ble Court be pleased to allow this application with costs against the respondent”

4. We may clarify at this stage that the writ applicant herein, namely Heval Navinbhai Patel is the unmarried daughter of the writ applicant of the connected writ application.

5. The subject matter of challenge in the present writ application is to the notice issued by the respondents under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, 'the Act, 1961') for the Assessment Year 2012- 13. The reasons assigned for reopening of the assessment for the relevant year vide order 30.07.2018, reads thus:

“2. In this connection, please find following reason recorded for reopening of assessment as per direction given by the Hon. Gujarat High Court in special civil application no 3955 of 2014 dated 31- 03-2014 in the case of Sahkarikhand Udyog Mandal Ltd;

“Reason for reopening of the assessment in the case of Shri Heval Navinbhai Patel A.Y. 2012-13 u/s 147 of the I T Act.”

In this case, it is gathered by the undersigned that: The undersigned is in the possession of information that a search u/s. 132/Survey u/s. 133A of the I T Act, 1961, was carried out at the various premises of Venus Group. One of the premises i.e. Crystal Arcade at C G road, Ahmedabad was covered u/s. 132 of the I T Act, 1961 and documents related to unaccounted cash transactions of the Venus Group were seized. On analysis and co-relating of these documents, it was found that unaccounted cash transaction were first recorded on vouchers further these were recorded on the day cash-book.

(2) Incriminating documents relating to unaccounted cash: The seized incriminating documents related to unaccounted cash transactions were from the period since January 2007 to 07 March 2015. The transactions were recorded in continuous manner i.e. without any gap and these transactions of unaccounted cash are related to Venus Group and Vaswani Family member. The cash book is written in coded from for name, amounts, dates and estimates etc. Further, the signature on seized unaccounted day cash-book by Shri Deepak Bhudharmal Vaswani/Ashok Sunderdas Vaswani proves about its verification and authenticity as these transaction entries were supported with supporting vouchers also.

(3) Supporting Vouchers: There are two different colours of vouchers i.e. Green and pink coluors. The green colour vouchers are the indicators of receipt of cash whereas pink colour vouchers indicate expenses/payments. Green colour envelopes contains details of land, survey no., name of broker and vouchers relating to persons(parties).