Point of Law: It is a settled position of law that reopening of case under Section 147 of the act, after expiry of 4 years, cannot be justified unless the income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment by reason of the failure on the part of the assessee to disclose all the true and material facts necessary for his assessment.

ORDER :

ILESH J. VORA, J.

1. By filing this writ application under Article 226, the writ applicant seeks to challenge the notice dated 31.03.2019 issued by the respondent under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’ for short) seeking to reopen the applicant’s income tax assessment for the A.Y 2012-13.

2. The brief facts leading to file the present writ application can be summarized as under:

2.1 The writ applicant – assessee Company filed its return of Income for the A.Y. 2012-13 on 07.02.2013 declaring total income at Rs. 1,75,310/and assessment under Section 143(3) of the Act was completed on 26.03.2015.

2.2 The Assessing Officer has reopened the assessment under Section 147 by issuing impugned notice dated 31.03.2019 under Section 148 of the Act.

2.3 At the request of the writ applicant, reasons recorded have been furnished to the writ applicant on 17.05.2019, which reads as under :

REASONS RECORDED :

1. The assessee Company has its return of income for AY 2012-13 on 07.02.2013 declaring total income at Rs.1,75, 310/. The assessment u/s 143(3) was completed on 26.03.2015.

2. In this case, an information was received from the “DDIT (Inv.) Unit 4(2), Mumbai vide letter No. “DDIT(Inv.)4(2)/ Information/ABR/201819 dated 15.03.2019. In this case, an information has been received that during the investigation of the below mentioned assessee, it is found from the. statements of reported account No.23105133390, 23105133404, 23105138686, 23105138937 and 23105138988 with Standard Chartered Bank for the reported entities, primafacie it is seen that the transactions are seen as these accounts are used by these entities for layering of funds. Further, analysis of the above bank statements vis-a-vis ITRs filed by reported entities was done and the findings are tabulated below:

3. The reported entities are showing meager incomes compared to turnovers which is not commensurate with the profit in their line of business. No Tax, Audit Report has been filed for all the reported entities, eve en though the turnover in all the entities is well above of Rs.60 Lakhs threshold. Thus, the assessee company is primarily engaged in providing entries only and thus the edits in the bank accounts of these entities are found explained.

3.1 During the year under consideration, the assessee company has credited total amount of Rs.51,00,000/in its bank accounts held with Standard Chartered Bank. As from the DDIIT (Inv), Mumbai, it has bean established that amount of Rs,51,00,000/is mere accommodation entry and the assessee is beneficiary of the said amount.

4. In view of above facts/material available on records and after analyzing the same, I have reason to believe that income of the assessee to the extent of 51,00,000/has escaped assessment for A.Y.2012-13 within the meaning of Section 147 of the I.T. Act.

5. Applicability of the provisions of section 147/151 to the facts of the case.

In this case a return of income was filed for the year under consideration and regular assessment u/s.143(3) was made on 26.03.2015. Since, 4 years from the end of the relevant year has expired in this case, the requirement to initiate proceedings u/s. 147 are reason to believe that income for the year under consideration has escaped assessment because of failure on the part of the assessee to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for his assessment for the assessment year under consideration. It is pertinent to mention here that reasons to believe that income has escaped assessment for the year under consideration have been recorded above (refer paragraphs 2 to 4 above).

In this cas