JUDGMENT :

1. Petitioner is an individual who is engaged in the business of trading of Arecanut (Supari), Chopped Betal Nut and Sweet Betal Nut in the name of his proprietary concern namely “S.K.L. Enterprises”. He alleges that his Books of Account and other records are subject to audit under Section 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act of 1961’). He further claims to be filing his return year after year and has been assessed to tax accordingly. For the Assessment Year 2019-20, the petitioner filed his return under Section 139(1) of the Act on 26.08.2019 disclosing total income of Rs. 6,81,630/-. The turnover during the year from his proprietary concern aggregated to Rs. 5,87,26,116/-and aggregate purchases are of Rs. 5,81,61,860/-. He further asserts that he has been assessed under Section 143(1) of the Act on the basis of return submitted by him on 26.08.2019 and no notice has been issued to him under Section 143(2) of the Act.

2. It transpires that the jurisdictional authority i.e. respondent no. 2 issued a notice to petitioner dated 16.03.2023, under Section 148A(b) of the Act, 1961 accompanying the information with the assessing officer to suggest that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment. The substance of the information accompanying the notice is extracted hereinafter :-

“1(A) Information was received by DDIT (Inv.), Unit-III, Nagpur from DGGI and GST authorities in the case of M/s Kuhoje K Achumi of availing and utilization of fraudulent ITC on the basis of fake tax invoices without receipt of goods. The said entity did not exist at the declared principal place of business. On the basis of the above information, the Investigation Unit-III, Nagpur took up investigation and inferred that M/s Kuhoje K Achumi has facilitated and is involved in both availing of fake invoices without actual supply of goods and in turn in issuing fake invoices to others without actual supply of goods. Aforesaid facts imply that the parties which have claimed to have availed purchases from M/s Kuhoje K Achumi have only indulged in availing of purchase invoices without any actual movement of goods and by doing so, they have artificially inflated their purchase expenses and reduced their taxable income. You are reported as one of such suspicious purchasers and the purchase value in your case for F.Y. 2018-19 relevant to A.Y. 2019-20 is Rs. 96,43,750/-from M/s Kuhoje K Achumi.

(B) Similarly, Information was received by DDIT (Inv.), Unit-III, Nagpur from CBDT, in the case of M/s Om Traders (Prop. Jasbir Singh Chatwal) of availing fraudulent ITC. On the basis of the above information, the Investigation Unit-III, Nagpur took up investigation and it is found that M/s Om Traders (Prop. Jasbir Singh Chatwal) has indulged in availing fake tax invoices which implies that there is no actual movement of goods to M/s Om Traders. Further, M/s Om Traders has made sales to number of entities. Since M/s Om Traders is indulged in fictitious purchases, therefore, the sales are also fictitious as he has no goods to make sale to other entities. Therefore, the entities who have claimed to have availed purchases from M/s Om Traders (Prop. Jasbir Singh Chatwal) has merely inflated their purchase expenses by availing invoices from M/s Om Traders (Prop. Jasbir Singh Chatwal) without actual movement of goods. You are reported as one of such suspicious purchasers and the purchase value in your case from F.Y. 2018-19 relevant to A.Y. 2019-20 is Rs. 83,25,000/-from M/s Om Traders (Prop. Jasbir Singh Chatwal).

(C) In addition there is third party information which is as under:-