Admissions made under duress without corroborative evidence cannot substantiate undisclosed income assessments, requiring substantiated documentation for any tax determination.

ORDER

PER S.RIFAUR RAHMAN,ACCOUNTANT MEMBER :

1. The assessee and Revenue has filed cross appeals against the order of ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-33, Noida [“ld. CIT(A)”, for short] dated 24.07.2024 for AY 2018-19. The assessee has also filed appeal against the order of ld. CIT (A)-33, Noida dated 22.05.2024 for AY 2017-18.

2. Since the issues are common and the appeals are connected, therefore, the same are heard together and being disposed off by this common order.

3. First we take up assessee’s appeal for AY 2017-18 being ITA No.3348/Del/2024.

4. At the time of hearing, ld. AR of the assessee pressed hard on the ground that ld. CIT (A) has not admitted the additional evidences filed in the shape of affidavit which is fully covered under Rule 46A of the Income Tax Rules, 1961 but ld. CIT (A) rejected the same stating that there is no sufficient cause which prevented the assessee from furnishing the said information during the assessment stage. He submitted that Shri B.S. Tyagi and his only son Shri Amit Tyagi expired on 21.05.2021 and 14.05.2021 in COVID-19 and female widow could not trace out the documents of advance received from Smt. Praveen and no explanation was sought by the Assessing Officer as the assessment was going to be barred by limitation and assessee was prevented by sufficient cause not to file the affidavit. Accordingly, the ld. AR of the assessee prayed that the matter may be remitted back to the Assessing Officer for fresh adjudication after admitting the additional evidences and submissions. Ld. DR of the Revenue relied upon the order of the authorities below, however he did not object the remitting of the matter to the Assessing Officer.

5. Considered the rival submissions and perused the material on record. Upon careful consideration, we are of the considered view that in the interest of justice, the matter requires denovo assessment. Therefore, we remit back the issues to the file of the Assessing Officer with the directions to decide the same afresh after admitting the additional evidences and submissions of the assessee, after giving adequate opportunity of being heard to the assessee. Assessee is directed to fully cooperate with the AO during the proceedings. We hold and direct accordingly.

6. In the result, the appeal being ITA No.3348/Del/2024 for AY 2017-18 filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.

7. Now we take up ITA No.4132/Del/2024 for AY 2018-19 filed by the assessee wherein the assessee has taken the following grounds of appeal:-

“1. That under the facts & circumstances of the case, the learned CIT(A) has erred to treat the amount of Rs.90,00,000/- as surrendered undisclosed income on the presumption that assessee has issued the cheque of Rs.60,00,000/- for surrender of income in his case. The confirmation of addition of Rs.90,00,000/- without any corroboratory evidence is arbitrary, unjust, uncalled for, illegal and in any case highly excessive.

2. That under the facts and circumstances of the case, the Ld CIT(A) has erred to confirm the addition of Rs.90,00,000/- inspite of the facts that the same was denied and no stock investment, jewellery or cash or any other investment was found with the assessee during the survey made at company, farm house and residence. The confirmation of addition of Rs.90,00,000/- is therefore, arbitrary, unjust, uncalled for illegal without any material on record and highly excessive.

3. That under the facts and circumstances of the case, the Ld. CIT(A) has erred to hold that non-compliance to query no.2, 3 & 4 at the time of survey in case of Uniplus Biotech and Bestopick Life Sciences Pvt Ltd has any relevance to the surrender of amount by Sh. B S Tya