COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. PAVUNNY K I

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Income-tax Appellate Tribunal referred the following questions at the instance of the Revenue under Section 256(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (briefly, "the Act") :

(2.) THE brief facts as culled out from the order of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal are that for the assessment year 1981-82 with which we are concerned, the assessee, the proprietor of A. C. Stores, Ernakulam, filed a return of income disclosing a total income of Rs. 3,31,900 which was reduced in a revised return to Rs. 3,31,250. THE Income-tax Officer also completed the assessment on a total income Rs. 43,83,991, which included a sum of Rs. 40,37,351, which was taken to be the income of the assessee under Section 69A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, being the value of 23,337.287 grams of gold seized from the compound of the assessee by the Central Excise authorities during a search operation conducted on the premises of the assessee on December 6, 1980. During the search, the excise authorities recovered a wooden box buried in the compound of the assessee which site was clearly visible from the room of the assessee. On examination, it was found that the box recovered by the authorities, contained 200 gold bars, 155 gold biscuits bearing markings "CREDIT SUISSEE 9990-10 tolas CHI. ESSAYER FOUNDEUR" and 45 numbers bearing markings "JOHNSON MATHEY 9990-10 tolas LONDON".

(3.) IT is noteworthy that the Income-tax Officer himself recorded the statement of the assessee on February 28, 1981, a copy of which was produced before us by learned senior standing counsel during the argument. In the statement recorded by the Income-tax Officer, the assessee simply denied having owned and possessed the articles in question. No statement was given by the assessee before the Income-tax Officer that the articles were acquired in the year 1972. Except the denial of ownership and possession and except the denial of knowledge of the articles, no other statement was made by the assessee before the Income-tax Officer.