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No Addition Under Section 153A in Completed Assessments Without New Incriminating Evidence: ITAT Jaipur

In a significant ruling for taxpayers, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) Jaipur bench has reaffirmed the limits of the Revenue’s power during post-search assessments. In a common order covering two appeals, the tribunal held that in respect of completed or unabated assessments, the Assessing Officer (AO) cannot make additions under Section 153A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, unless new incriminating material is unearthed during the search process.

The judgment, delivered by the division bench of Shri Gagan Goyal (Accountant Member) and Shri Narinder Kumar (Judicial Member), provides much-needed clarity on the necessity of "new" evidence when re-opening concluded tax matters.

Background of the Dispute

The case originated from a search and seizure operation conducted on July 9, 2018, against the 'Supreme Group', an entity to which the assessee, M/s A and J Industrial and Financial Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., belongs. Following the search, the Revenue issued notices under Section 153A for the Assessment Year 2014-15, alleging that the assessee had received bogus share premium investments from M/s Vindus Holding Ltd. to route unaccounted income.

While the original assessment for 2014-15 had been completed via scrutiny, the department sought to invoke Section 153A, arguing that statements recorded during the investigation—particularly those from alleged entry operators—constituted sufficient evidence to classify the share transactions as accommodation entries.

The Conflict: Evidence vs. Allegation

The department contended that the ledger entries and statements from third parties created a valid basis for adding the share capital and commission expenses to the assessee's income.

Conversely, the assessee argued that all documents submitted during the original scrutiny assessment remained unchanged and that no new incriminating material was found during the 2018 search. The assessee maintained that relying on statements recorded behind the back of the taxpayer, without any supporting seized documents pointing to wrongdoing, failed to meet the threshold required by law to disturb a completed assessment.

Legal Analysis: The Abhisar Buildwell Principle

The ITAT relied heavily on the landmark decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Principal Commissioner of Income-tax, Central-3 v. Abhisar Buildwell (P.) Ltd. , specifically its observation regarding completed assessments.

The tribunal emphasized that once an assessment is completed and not pending ("unabated"), the AO lacks the jurisdiction to initiate a roving inquiry unless there is discovery of fresh evidence during the search. The bench noted that the material already available to the department, or statements from third-party investigations unrelated to the specific assets of the assessee, did not satisfy the criteria of "new incriminating material."

Key Observations

The Tribunal highlighted the strict requirements for invoking the jurisdiction under Section 153A:

• "In case of completed/unabated assessments, no addition can be made by the AO in absence of any incriminating material found during the course of search under section 132 or requisition under section 132A of the Act, 1961."
• "It is not case of the department-appellant that any document was discovered for the first time during search proceedings, which could be termed to be ‘New incriminating material’."
• "When it is not a case of incorrect assumption of income or incorrect application of law or non application of mind, Learned PCIT fell in error in terming the assessment order as erroneous for the purpose of revision u/s 263."

Final Decision and Implications

The ITAT set aside the orders passed by the Assessing Officer and the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (PCIT), ruling in favor of the assessee. The decision underscores that legal finality in tax assessments cannot be set aside based on conjecture or pre-existing theories without the discovery of concrete, new evidence during the course of a search.

This ruling is expected to bolster the defense of many corporate taxpayers facing reassessment proceedings under Section 153A, reinforcing the principle that the Revenue must demonstrate specifically how the search action unearthed new, incriminating facts that were not, and could not have been, known during previous scrutiny assessments.