Priyanka Agarwal (Smt.) v. Dy. CIT (2023) 101 ITR 391 (Jaipur) (Trib)

S. 271AAB : Penalty-Search initiated on or after Ist day of July 2012-Assessee declared income including income surrendered during search-A.O. initiating penalty-Show cause notice unclear with respect to which clause-Cash available with assessee as consequence of savings and gift-Cannot be treated as undisclosed income-Penalty quashed.[S. 132, 132(4), 274]

Held, that the show-cause notice issued under section 274 read with section 271AAB of the Act was not clear, i. e., whether it was for clause (a) or clause (b) or clause (c) of section 271AAB(1) of the Act. The assessee declared income which included the surrendered income.Therefore, the income disclosed by the assessee was not undisclosed income in terms of the definition under section 271AAB(1) of the Act. Further on perusal of the statement recorded under section 132(4) of the Act, the income incriminating materials were found during the search were admitted and the assessee on all occasions had voluntarily surrendered income accepting the figure stated by the search team. The Commissioner (Appeals) and the Assessing Officer failed to note that the assessee herself had explained the source of income stating that out of cash surrendered during the search at Rs. 50,000 was withdrawn from the bank account of the assessee and Rs. 1,00,000 was withdrawn by her husband and the remaining was past savings. According to Explanation (c) to section 271AAB of the Act, being cash available as a consequence of her savings and gifts on various occasions could not be considered as undisclosed income. Therefore, the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) sustaining the penalty was quashed. (AY. 2013-14)