BALAJI LAXMANRAO KILLARIKAR,AURANGABAD V. INCOME TAX OFFICER, WARD 2(3), AURANGABAD

ITA 910/PUN/2025

AI Insights

The case involves Balaji Laxmanrao Sagar Killarikar, an advocate by profession, who appealed against the addition of Rs.12,50,350 to his income under section 68 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for the assessment year 2008-09. The addition was initially made by the Assessing Officer (AO) following re-assessment proceedings under section 147, based on unexplained cash deposits in the assessee's bank account. The CIT(A) partially relieved the assessee by considering his professional receipts as a source of the unexplained cash, but a remaining addition of Rs.5,88,754 was contested in the Tribunal. The Tribunal, after considering the circumstances and the documents provided, further reduced the addition, sustaining only Rs.88,754.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 773257 (ITAT-PUNE)
• Duration Of Justice: 5 month(s) 20 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 23-09-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Partly Allowed
• Bench Allotted: SMC
• Assessment Year: 2008-2009
• Appeal Filed On: 03-04-2025
• Laws Referred To: Income-tax Act, 1961
• Result in Favour of: Partly Allowed
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Department Lawyers: MANOJ TRIPATHI
• Keywords: Gift
• Section: 143(3)

Judgement Text

" IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL PUNE BENCHES “SMC”, PUNE BEFORE DR.MANISH BORAD, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER आयकर अपील सं. / ITA No.910/PUN/2025 Assessment Year: 2008-09 Balaji Laxmanrao Sagar Killarikar, N-1, Plot No.220, Tirupati Complex, Bhakti Nagar, CIDCO, Aurangabad-431003, Maharashtra PAN: AJLPK5651R Vs. ITO, Ward 2(3), Aurangabad Appellant Respondent आदेश / ORDER The captioned appeal at the instance of assessee pertaining to A.Y. 2008-09 is directed against the order dated 03.02.2025 of Addl/JCIT (A), Bhubaneswar passed u/s.250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter also called ‘the Act’) arising out of Assessment Order dated 17.03.2016 passed u/s. 143(3) r.w.s147 of the Act. 2. None appeared on behalf of the assessee. Even in the past when the case of the assessee was fixed hearing on 19.06.2025 and 22.07.2025 there was no representation. I therefore proceed to adjudicate the appeal exparte qua assessee with the assistance of ld. Departmental Representative and available records. Appellant by : None Respondent by : Shri Manoj Tripathi (through virtual) Date of hearing : 11.09.2025 Date of pronouncement : 23.09.2025 Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.910/PUN/2025 Balaji Laxmanrao Sagar Killarikar 2 3. Assessee has raised as many as Eleven grounds of appeal but they all revolve around the addition of Rs.12,50,350/- u/.s.68 of the Act. 4. With the assistance of ld. Departmental Representative, I observe that inspite of being granted Ten (10) opportunities by ld.CIT(A) assessee failed to file any details in compliance to the notices. Inspite of non-appearance by the assessee, ld.CIT(A) partly allowed the assessee’s appeal by giving relief of Rs.6,61,596/-. Aggrieved assessee is now in appeal before this Tribunal against the remaining addition of Rs.5,88,754/-. 5. Ld. DR vehemently argued supporting the order of ld.CIT(A). 6. Though the assessee has failed to appear but submissions have been filed along with the Appeal Memo set and the same reads as under : “The appellant all the while gone on requesting for opportunity to give personal hearing/s to him before the learned Assessing Officer, so to enable him to narrate, peruse and explain certain transactions of borrowing/s and or deposit/s he effected for showing the banker/financer for loan purpose. Said request has not been considered by the learned AO and proceeded to pass the impugned Order making huge additions as/to income of the present appellant. 2. 2. Before the learned Appellate Authority the appellant could not produce these documents, due to non receipt of the notices up to 2023 and the belated receipt of last notice dated 23/01/2025. These documents those are proposed and prayed for placing on the record of the case/court, are the affidavits of the relatives of this appellant, who have advanced/deposited the amounts for the time being and those were returned also during the financial year 2008-2009. 3. The appellant states and submits that, these are the self- explanatory documents which will help for the proper and judicial determination of the case before this Honourable Tribunal and that is the reasonable explanation for the cash, which the learned Assessing Officer has treated to be an un explained and consequently pleased to Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.910/PUN/2025 Balaji Laxmanrao Sagar Killarikar 3 add the huge amount in the income of the appellant as unexplained cash. 4. The learned Appellate Authority has rightly considered the grievance of the appellant, and reduced the amount of addition to the extent of gross professional receipts of the appellant. The amount of these borrowings and/or deposits from these relatives are taken in to consideration for cash deposit in the bank account, the huge addition/s made by the learned A O will be nil and consequently the tax liability and demand raised as against the appellant will also be nil. 5. The appellant, in view of the above stated facts and circumstances and the submissions of the appellant, the documents proposed and prayed for its placing on the record of the case/Court as are necessary for the judicial and proper determination of the case, are deserve to be and therefore may kindly be allowed to be placed on record of the case for reading as evidence of the appellant for the un- explained cash deposit/s in the bank account during the relevant Assessment Year in question. 6. The appellant in view of the facts, circumstances narrated above and the in the interest of the principles of the law and justice, the proposed and placed on record of the case, deserve to be read as evidence for the proper determination of the case, and the appeal of the appellant accordingly may kindly be allowed in terms of the explanation of the cash deposits. 7. The appellant craves leave to add, amend, alter delete any of these submissions and the documents if called for and/or found necessary for the proper determination of the case, with prior leave of this Hon'ble Court. HENCE IT IS PRAYED: A) The present application may kindly be granted and allowed; B) The documents proposed, prayed for and placed on record may kindly be allowed to be relied and read as evidence as the explanation for the unexplained cash deposits in the bank account of the appellant. C) Any other equitable relief may kindly be granted in favour of the appellant and oblige.” 7. I have heard the ld. DR and perused the record placed before me. I observe that the assessee is an Advocate by Profession and declared income of Rs.3,29,650/- in the return of income for A.Y. 2008-19. Ld. AO based on the information Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.910/PUN/2025 Balaji Laxmanrao Sagar Killarikar 4 about some investment in the immovable property issued the statutory notices for carrying out the re-assessment proceedings u/s.147 of the Act. Ld. AO observed that assessee has deposited cash of Rs.16,30,000/- in the bank account. Explanation submitted by the assessee could not satisfy the ld. AO. He however considering the gross receipts of Rs.10,61,246/- mentioned in the income-tax return gave relief to the extent of net profit shown from the Profession and sustained the remaining addition of Rs.12,50,350/-. 8. In the appeal before ld.CIT(A) though the assessee failed to appear but still ld.CIT(A) gave part relief observing that since the professional receipts of Rs.10,61,246/- have already been disclosed in the income tax return, the same in total should be considered as source of unexplained cash deposit and thus gave further relief of Rs.6,61,596/-. For the remaining addition of Rs.5,88,754/- assessee is now in appeal before this Tribunal. I observe that the matter pertains to F.Y. 2007-08 and even ld.CIT(A) took almost Nine years to pass the appellate order. The assessee in the statement of facts as well as in the grounds of appeal, apart from raising the grounds for not being provided proper opportunity of hearing, has also submitted that during the year assessee has received Rs.83,280/- from its clients towards reimbursement of expenses and they should not be considered as part of the gross receipts. Further, assessee has filed application for production of documents as evidence regarding the source of cash received from sources other than professional receipts. Affidavits in support thereof have been filed. At this juncture, if the matter is restored to the file of Ld. Jurisdictional Assessing Officer, it would be a case where almost Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.910/PUN/2025 Balaji Laxmanrao Sagar Killarikar 5 15 years already passed and out of that Nine years have been taken by ld.CIT(A) to pass the impugned order. Therefore, it would not be justified to remit the issues to the file of ld. JAO. However, in order to end the litigation and also considering the details filed before me and the available records, I find that ld. AO has failed to take cognizance of the accumulated funds from savings available with the assessee and also unsecured loans received from Friends and Relatives utilised for the purpose of the alleged cash deposit. Therefore, in the larger interest of justice and being fair to both the parties, I further give a relief of Rs.5.00 lakh towards the accumulated funds from savings for past many years from carrying out the professional activities and gifts/unsecured loans from friends and relatives. Accordingly, assessee further gets relief of Rs.5.00 lakh. After the relief given by ld.CIT(A) at Rs.6,61,596/- and relief given by this Tribunal at Rs.5.00 lakh, the remaining addition of Rs.88,754/- remains to be sustained in the hands of assessee. Grounds of appeal raised by the assessee are partly allowed. 9. In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is partly allowed as per the terms indicated above. Order pronounced on this 23rd day of September, 2025. Sd/- (MANISH BORAD) ACCOUNTANT MEMBER पुणे / Pune; \u0001दनांक / Dated : 23rd September, 2025. Satish Printed from counselvise.com ITA No.910/PUN/2025 Balaji Laxmanrao Sagar Killarikar 6 आदेश क\u0002 \u0003ितिलिप अ ेिषत / Copy of the Order forwarded to : 1. अपीलाथ / The Appellant. 2. \u000eयथ / The Respondent. 3. The Pr. CIT concerned. 4. िवभागीय ितिनिध, आयकर अपीलीय अिधकरण, “SMC” ब\u0014च, पुणे / DR, ITAT, “SMC” Bench, Pune. 5. गाड\u0004 फ़ाइल / Guard File. आदेशानुसार / BY ORDER, // True Copy // Senior Private Secretary आयकर अपीलीय अिधकरण, पुणे / ITAT, Pune. Printed from counselvise.com "