Search and seizure

Assessment under s 153C — Satisfaction is required to be arrived at by the AO of the person who was searched under s 132 of the Act regarding any undisclosed income of the person who was not subjected to a search to hand over the seized material to the AO of the person to whom the seized documents belongs or is alleged to belong, as held by MumTrib in Beejay Security & Finance Ltd v ACIT — In favour of: The assessee; ITA Nos 4859 to 4865/Mum/200: (AYs 2001–2002, 2002–2003, 2003–2004, 2004–2005, 2005–2006, 2006–2007, 2007–2008).

The satisfaction required for proceedings under s 153C cannot be reduced to a mere formality of forwarding the documents found in the course of the search, which did not belong to the person searched, and which belonged to the person against whom proceedings under s 153C were sought to be initiated.

Decided on: 24 June 2011.