Common Cause (A Registered Society) v. UOI ( 2017) 394 ITR 220 (SC)

S. 2(12A) : Books of accounts – Entries in loose papers/ sheets are irrelevant and inadmissible as evidence- Offences and prosecution- Settlement commission. [S. 132, 143(3), 245D, Evidence Act, S.34]

Entries in loose papers/ sheets are irrelevant and inadmissible as evidence. Such loose papers are not “books of account” and the entries therein are not sufficient to charge a person with liability. Even if books of account are regularly kept in the ordinary course of business, the entries therein shall not alone be sufficient evidence to charge any person with liability. It is incumbent upon the person relying upon those entries to prove that they are in accordance with facts. Finding of Settlement Commission disregarding such evidence as in admissible and unreliable . The materials in question were not good enough to constitute offences to direct the registration of a first information report and investigation therein. (C.B.I. v. V.C. Shukla (1998)3 SCC 410 (SC) followed)