Supreme Court Dismisses Revenue’s SLP Regarding Section 68 Addition: Upholds ITAT Fact-Finding on Unsecured Loans

The Supreme Court of India, in the case of PCIT Vs Mukul Kumar, has declined to interfere with a lower court's decision regarding the deletion of additions made under Section 68 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The Apex Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Revenue, observing that the matter did not warrant the exercise of discretionary jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India.

Factual Matrix and Assessment Proceedings

The litigation traces its roots to an assessment order where the Assessing Officer (AO) scrutinized the return of income filed by the assessee. The assessee, an individual involved in the business of providing financial assistance, had declared a total income of ₹3,49,810.

During the scrutiny proceedings, the AO flagged specific unsecured loans obtained by the assessee from various parties. To verify the authenticity of these transactions, the AO issued notices under Section 133(6) to the alleged creditors. However, replies were not received from 15 of these creditors.