NIMERA GRAM SEVA SAHAKARI SAMITI LIMITED,NIMEDA,JAIPUR V. INCOME TAX WARD 7(1) , JAIPUR, JAIPUR

ITA 1112/JPR/2025

AI Insights

The case involves Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Limited, which faced an assessment order for the year 2015-16, where an addition of Rs. 61,16,200 was made concerning unexplained cash deposits under section 69A of the Income Tax Act. The assessee did not adequately respond to multiple notices from the Assessing Officer, leading to the addition being treated as unexplained money. The CIT(A) upheld the assessment, leading to the appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. The Tribunal found that the assessee was given sufficient opportunities to prove the genuineness of the cash deposits but failed to comply, thus restoring the matter to the Assessing Officer for a fresh decision while imposing costs on the assessee.

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 785087 (ITAT-JAIPUR)
• Duration Of Justice: 3 month(s) 5 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 13-11-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Partly Allowed
• Bench Allotted: B
• Assessment Year: 2015-2016
• Appeal Filed On: 07-08-2025
• Laws Referred To: Income Tax Act
• Result in Favour of: Partly Allowed
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Department Lawyers: GAURAV AWASTHI
• Assessee Lawyers: MUKESH GOYAL
• Keywords: Opportunity of being heard; Onus to prove; Non compliance
• Section: 148; 142(1)

Judgement Text

"vk;dj vihyh; vf/kdj.k] t;iqj U;k;ihB] t;iqj IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, JAIPUR BENCHES,”B-Bench” JAIPUR Jh xxu xks;y] ys[kk lnL; ,oa Jh ujsUnz dqekj] U;kf;d lnL; ds le{k BEFORE: SHRI GAGAN GOYAL, AM & SHRI NARINDER KUMAR, JM vk;dj vihyla-@ITA No.1112/JPR/2025 fu/kZkj.k o\"kZ@AssessmentYear : 2015-16 Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Limited. Nimeda Nimeda, jaipur-303005. cuke Vs. The ITO, Ward-7(1), Jaipur. LFkk;hys[kk la-@thvkbZvkjla-@PAN/GIR No. AABAN8248F vihykFkhZ@Appellant izR;FkhZ@Respondent fu/kZkfjrh dh vksjls@Assessee by :Shri Mukesh Goyal, C.A. jktLo dh vksjls@Revenue by: Shri Gaurav Awasthi, JCIT. lquokbZ dh rkjh[k@Date of Hearing :13/11/2025 mn?kks\"k.kk dh rkjh[k@Date of Pronouncement: 13/11/2025 vkns'k@ORDER PER: NARINDER KUMAR, JUDICIAL MEMBER . On 17.03.2023, assessment order relating to the assessment year 2015-16 was passed against the assessee-appellant- an Association of persons. Thereby, the Assessing Officer made an addition of Rs. 61,16,200/- in respect of cash deposits, while resorting to provisions of section 69A of the Income Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”). Printed from counselvise.com 2 ITA No. 1112/JPR/2025 Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Ltd., Jaipur. Feeling aggrieved by said assessment order, the assessee filed an appeal. Vide impugned order dated 10.06.2025, Learned CIT(A), NFAC dismissed said appeal. That is how, the assessee is before this Appellate Tribunal. 2. Arguments heard. File perused. 3. As per record, during assessment year 2015-16, the assessee had deposited cash to the tune of Rs. 61,16,200/-, Jaipur Central Co-operative Bank Limited, but not filed any return of income. So, genuineness of the said cash deposit required verification. That is why, the Assessing Officer issued notices to the assessee u/s 148, 143(2), 142(1) and show cause notice, in addition of two others letters, to the assessee, but the assessee did not respond to the notices. These notices were issued on 01.09.2022, 29.11.2022, 13.01.2023, 25.01.2023, whereas the only show cause notice was issued on 09.03.2023. 4. It may be mentioned here that in response to the notice u/s 148 of the issued first of all i.e. on 29.03.2022, the assessee filed return of income on 29.04.2022, reflecting therein its total income as ‘Nil’. Printed from counselvise.com 3 ITA No. 1112/JPR/2025 Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Ltd., Jaipur. 5. As is available from the assessment order, in response to the notice dated 05.01.2023 issued u/s 142(1) of the Act, the assessee filed its reply and also provided balance sheet, Profit and loss, computation sheet, bank statement and other papers. 6. The assessee submitted its version in the reply as under:- “it is a Primary Agriculture credit Co-op Society Ltd. (PACS) registered under the Co-op Society Act, Rajasthan. It is engaged in carrying out banking activities like borrowing, raising or taking up of money and lending or advancing of money for the purpose of agriculture, sale and purchase of seeds and urea etc. The assessee society is financed by District Central Co-op Bank to provide credit facilities in its area on behalf of State Govt. to facilitate the farmers of the villages for their credit requirement as well as to fulfill seed, urea etc. requirement. The assessee society received loans from Co-op Bank and advance the same to the farmers/ villagers (members) situated in rural area for agriculture purposes also the whole income of assessee society was exempt u/s 80P\". Vide show cause notice dated 09.03.2023, the assessee was called upon to produce cash ledger, source and reasons of cash deposits and also to provide information regarding payment if any, received from any person other than member of the assessee society. However, the assessee failed to furnish any response to the said show cause notice, as already mentioned above. 7. Ultimately, the Assessing Officer proceeded to frame the assessment order. Printed from counselvise.com 4 ITA No. 1112/JPR/2025 Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Ltd., Jaipur. The Assessing officer observed that onus to prove the genuineness of the financial transaction was on the assessee, but when the assessee failed to produce satisfactory documentary evidence regarding genuineness of cash deposit transactions or to prove its innocence, the entire amount of Rs. 61,16,200/- was to be treated as unexplained money as per provisions of section 69A of the Act. Consequently, said income was added to the income of the assessee. 8. In the course of arguments, when we have enquired from Ld. AR for the appellant about the failure on the part of the assessee-appellant to produce cash ledger, source and reasons of cash deposits, and to furnish information regarding payment if any, received from persons other than its member and also in its failure to furnish any response to the said show cause notice, Ld. AR for the appellant has not be able to put forth any reason whatsoever for non compliance in this regard. 9. As is available from Form 35, submitted before Learned CIT(A), while challenging the assessment order, one of the grounds of appeal raised by the appellant was that the Assessing Officer had not provided adequate Printed from counselvise.com 5 ITA No. 1112/JPR/2025 Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Ltd., Jaipur. opportunity of hearing to the assessee before making the impugned addition. Another ground of appeal raised by the appellant was that the entire income of the assessee-appellant was entitled to deductions u/s 80P of the Act. 10. As regards the first ground of appeal that adequate opportunities were not provided by the Assessing Officer to the assessee, Learned CIT(A) referred to the steps taken by the Assessing Officer as reflected in the table available in the assessment order, and accordingly, rejected said ground of appeal. 11. As regards the other ground i.e. ground no. 4, relating deductions claimed u/s 80P of the Act, Learned CIT(A) observed that the assessee had not put forth submissions relating to the cash deposits so as to throw light on their source and nature. Learned CIT(A) went on to observe that it was not possible to decide whether the cash was received from the members or non members of the society, especially when the assessee had not submitted cash book, ledger and details of source of cash. Consequently, ground no. 4 was rejected. Printed from counselvise.com 6 ITA No. 1112/JPR/2025 Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Ltd., Jaipur. 12. While dealing with grounds No. 2 and 3 raised in the grounds of appeal there, Learned CIT(A) observed that in absence of any documentary evidence to prove true nature of cash deposits , the entire amount of cash deposits remained unexplained. Accordingly, Learned CIT(A) upheld the finding recorded by the Assessing Officer that the said cash deposits were unexplained money. The appeal filed by the assessee was therefore dismissed. 13. In the face of the non compliance of the certain notices, including show cause notice dated 09.03.2023, the only submission put forth by Ld. AR for the appellant before us, is that the matter may be restored to the Assessing Officer so as to enable the assessee to produce all the relevant details/record and information, which earlier it failed to produce or provide, for effective adjudication of the issue involved. 14. Admittedly, the assessee did not submit any response to the show cause notice or notice u/s 143(2) dated 01.09.2022 and notice u/s 142(1) issued on 29.11.2022. It is also noticed that the assessee failed to submit any response to the letters dated 13.01.2023 and 25.01.2023 issued by the Assessing Officer. Printed from counselvise.com 7 ITA No. 1112/JPR/2025 Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Ltd., Jaipur. 15. The assessee claims itself to be a society. The issue pertains to claim of deduction u/s 80P of the Act. The assessee failed to avail of the sufficient opportunities provided by the Assessing Officer to discharge its onus to establish source and nature of the cash deposit. There is nothing in the impugned order, passed by Learned CIT(A) that any material was submitted by the assessee in the appellate proceedings, which could be taken into consideration for adjudication of the issue involved. 16. In the given facts and circumstances and having regard to the gravity of the issue involved, we deem it a fit case to allow another opportunity to the assessee to appear before the Assessing Officer and avail of an opportunity of being heard in support of its claim regarding deductions and to establish genuineness of the cash deposit. As regards failure and non compliance on the part of the assessee, the assessee deserves to be burdened with costs of Rs. 6,000/-. We order accordingly. Result 17. In view of the above discussion, this appeal is disposed of, for statistical purposes and the matter is restored to the files of the Assessing Printed from counselvise.com 8 ITA No. 1112/JPR/2025 Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Ltd., Jaipur. Officer for decision afresh, after providing reasonable opportunity of being heard to the assessee. Costs to be deposited in “Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund” and receipt to be produced before the Assessing Officer, even before the commencement of proceedings on restoration of the matter there. File be consigned to the record room after the needful is done by the office. Order pronounced in the open court on 13/11/2025. Sd/- Sd/- ¼xxu xks;y½ ¼ujsUnz dqekj½ (GAGAN GOYAL) (NARINDER KUMAR) ys[kk lnL; @Accountant Member U;kf;d lnL;@Judicial Member Tk;iqj@Jaipur fnukad@Dated:- 13/11/2025 *Santosh vkns'k dh izfrfyfivxzsf’kr@Copy of the order forwarded to: 1. The Appellant- Nimera Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Ltd., Jaipur. 2. izR;FkhZ@ The Respondent- ITO, Ward- 7(1)1, Jaipur. 3. vk;djvk;qDr@ Theld CIT 4. vk;djvk;qDr@CIT(A) 5. foHkkxh; izfrfuf/k] vk;djvihyh; vf/kdj.k] t;iqj@DR, ITAT, Jaipur 6. xkMZQkbZy@ Guard File ITA No. 1112/JPR/2025) vkns'kkuqlkj@ By order, lgk;d iathdkj@Asstt. Registrar Printed from counselvise.com "