COMMISSIONER OF INCOME-TAX Vs. SANJEEV KUMAR JAIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE respondent -assessee filed his income -tax return for the assessment year 1996 -97 on April 30, 2003. The Assessing Officer on examining the same passed an order under Section 143/147 of the Income -tax Act, 1961, on March 31, 2004, wherein, while completing the assessment, he made three additions to the declared income of the respondent -assessee, namely, a sum of Rs. 2,12,750 allegedly earned by the assessee as a consequence of purchase/sale of shares, a sum of Rs. 1,03,317 alleged to be unexplained credits found in the bank account of the respondent -assessee, as also a sum of Rs. 30,000 allegedly paid by the respondent -assessee for the purchase of a plot.

(2.) IT is not a matter of dispute that while arriving at the aforesaid conclusions the Assessing Officer recorded at the back of the respondent -assessee, statements of Shri H. Section Maheshwari, Shri Parveen Mittal, Shri Sanjay Hasija and Shri Rajinder Gulati. It is also not a matter of dispute that before the aforesaid statements could be taken into consideration, it was imperative for the Assessing Officer to confront the respondent -assessee with the aforesaid statements. It is also not a matter of dispute that the aforesaid statements were actually brought to the notice of the respondent -assessee.

(3.) DISSATISFIED with the determination rendered by the Assessing Officer, the respondent -assessee preferred an appeal before the Commissioner of Income -tax (Appeals). The aforestated appeal preferred by the respondent -assessee was accepted by the Commissioner of Income (Appeals) by an order dated September 15, 2004. The aforesaid appellate authority arrived at the conclusion that it was imperative for the Assessing Officer to allow the respondent -assessee to cross -examine all the persons whose statements were recorded at his back, specially because they had formed the basis of arriving at the conclusion that additional income earned by the respondent -assessee had not been depicted in the return filed by him.