Retracted Statement Cannot Be Termed As Incriminating Material: Gauhati High Court Upholds ITAT’s Decision
The Gauhati High Court dismissed an Appeal filed against the Order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT).
The Gauhati High Court has refused to interfere with the finding that a retracted statement cannot be termed as an incriminating material.
The Court was dealing with an Appeal filed against the Order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Guwahati.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice Kaushik Goswami observed, “… we are of the view that the said finding of fact recorded by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) as well as ITAT is not liable to be interfered with in this appeal since this Court can only exercise jurisdiction when any substantial question of law arises.”
Advocate S.C. Keyal represented the Appellants while Advocate P. Jain represented the Respondent.
Factual Background
The Respondent had submitted Income Tax Returns (ITRs) under Section 139(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (ITA), declaring income of Rs. 2,00,080/-. However, a search and seizure operation under Section 132 of ITA was conducted on his residential premises. Thereafter, again a search was conducted and based on the search results, the case was selected for scrutiny under Section 153A of ITA. A notice was issued to the Respondent file Return of Income within 15 days.
The Respondent in compliance of the notice, e-filed his ITR and thereafter, proceedings were carried out. The Assessing Officer (AO) issued an Assessment Order and assessed his income at Rs. 4,25,30,080/-. Being aggrieved, the Respondent filed an Appeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) i.e., CIT(A), which allowed the same, holding that the AO invoked the jurisdiction without there being any incriminating material. The Appellant-authority challenged this before the ITAT which affirmed the findings of CIT(A). Hence, the case was before the High Court.
Reasoning
The High Court in the above regard, noted that the CIT(A) as well as ITAT, after carefully scrutinizing the material collected by the Assessing Officer, has recorded a finding of the fact that other than the retracted statement no other evidence/material was relied upon by the Assessing Officer to invoke the addition.
“The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) and the ITAT were of the view that the said piece of evidence, i.e. retracted statement cannot be termed as incriminating material”, it further said.
The Court held that the Appeal does not involve any substantial question of law and therefore, devoid of merit.
Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the Appeal and refused to interfere with the impugned findings.
Cause Title- The Principal Commissioner of Income Tax & Anr. v. Rohit Karan Jain (Neutral Citation: 2025:GAU-AS:2649-DB)
Appearance:
Appellants: Advocate S.C. Keyal
Respondent: Advocates P. Jain, H. Betala, and P.K. Khakolia.
