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Section 132 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Search and seizure - General - Whether where account books and documents seized during search were retained by income-tax authorities after expiry of 180 days without communicating to assessee reasons recorded by authorised officer and without approval of Commissioner, extended retention was wholly illegal and unlawful - Held, yes FACTS The officers of the department raided the premises of the company as well as the residential premises of the assessee on 13-11-1984, and 27-12-1984, and seized certain documents in exercise of power under section 132(1). Thereafter, the ITO passed an order under section 132(5) on 4-3-1985. The documents, account books, etc., in the possession of the authorities since the date of their seizure and were not returned to the assessee. On petition: HELD On a plain reading of the above section 132(8) it becomes clear that two conditions must be satisfied before the authorised officer is permitted to retain the documents/account books seized under sub-section (1), namely, (i) the reasons in writing must be recorded by the authorised officer seeking the Commissioner's approval; and (ii) the Commissioner's approval for such extended retention is obtained. If either of these conditions is not fulfilled, extended retention will become unlawful and the concerned person would be entitled to the return of the documents/account books forthwith. Section 132(10) next provides that if a person legally entitled to the books of account and/or other documents seized under sub-section (1) objects for any reason to the approval given by the Commissioner under sub-section (8), he may make an application to the Board stating therein the reasons for such objection and requesting for the return of the books of accounts and/or other documents. If such an application is received by the Board, sub-section (12) enjoins upon the Board to give the applicant an opportunity of being heard and thereafter pass such orders as it may think fit. On a conjoint reading of the sub-sections (1), (8), (10) and (12) of section 132 it is clear that the assessee must be communicated the reasons recorded by the authorised officer on…

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