S. 69A: Unexplained Money-Protective addition-under section Gold bullion found during search-Not sustainable where ownership stood admitted by company and bullion was duly recorded in books of account of the company. [S. S.132(4), S.143(3)]
During the course of the search, gold bullion was found and a protective addition of ₹8.28 crore was made in the hands of the assessee under section 69A. The Tribunal held that substantive addition had already been made in the hands of the company, M/s J. Kumar Infrastructure Project Ltd., which had unequivocally admitted ownership of the bullion. The company had demonstrated that the gold was duly recorded in its books of account, purchased through banking channels from identified suppliers, and complete reconciliation of the bullion with the books had been furnished. The Assessing Officer merely relied upon presumptions arising from WhatsApp chats, diary entries and the place where the bullion was kept, without disproving the documentary evidence or the suppliers’ confirmations. The Tribunal held that section 69A could not be invoked where the asset was duly accounted for and satisfactorily explained. Since neither the company disputed ownership nor did the assessee claim ownership, the protective addition in the assessee’s hands was held to be wholly unjustified. Accordingly, the deletion of the addition by the CIT(A) was upheld, and the Revenue’s appeal was dismissed. (AY. 2023-24)(ITA Nos. 2136 & 2671/Mum/2025, dated 16-04-2026.)
Jagdishkumar Madanlal Gupta v. Dy. CIT (Mum.)(Trib) www.itatonline.org
[Coram : Hon’ble Shri Sandeep Gosain, JM & Hon’ble Shri Bijayananda Puruseth, AM]