KAMAL KUMAR SAHARIA Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this reference at the instance of the assessee, the following question has been referred by the Tribunal under S. 256(1) of the INCOME TAX ACT, 1961, for the opinion of this Court for the asst. year 1982 - 83 :

(2.) THE facts in this case are that the Assessing Officer (AO) added to the income of the assessee a sum of Rs. 3,43,014 "being the amount of cash brought into the books of the assessee as received from the executive engineer by cheque on 31st March, 1982" within the previous year 1981 -82 corresponding to the asst. year 1982 -83, while the cheque was encashed only on 2nd April, 1982. He came to the conclusion that since the assessee had to incur expenses (as shown in his books) aggregating to Rs. 3,28,554, he brought in the amount of Rs. 3,43,014, in the "guise of the cheque" and added the amount as income from undisclosed sources.

(3.) THE Revenue filed an appeal against the order of the CIT(A) before the Tribunal who reversed the order of the CIT(A) and restored the order of the AO in respect of the addition of Rs. 3,43,014 as income from undisclosed sources. In coming to the finding, the Tribunal relied upon the book entries of the assessee as the only acceptable evidence and held that no other subsidiary evidence such as vouchers, etc., could be relied upon. The Tribunal had not gone into the question of the method of accounting regularly employed by the assessee.