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"Adverting to the various probabilities which weighed with the Income-tax Officer
we may observe that the notoriety for smuggling food grains and other
commodities to Bengal by country boats acquired by Sahibgunj and the notoriety
achieved by Dhulian as a great receiving centre for such commodities were merely
a background of suspicion and the appellant could not be tarred with the same
brush as every arhatdar and grain merchant who might have been indulging in
smuggling operations, without an iota of evidence in that behalf. The cancellation
of the food grain licence at Nawgachia and the prosecution of the appellant under
the Defence of India Rules was also of no consequence inasmuch as the appellant
was acquitted of the offence with which it had been charged and its licence also was
restored. The mere possibility of the appellant earning considerable amounts in the
year under consideration was a pure conjecture on the part of the Income-tax
Officer and the fact that the appellant indulged in speculation (in Kalai account)
could not legitimately lead to the inference that the profit in a single transaction or
in a chain of transactions could exceed the amounts, involved in the high
denomination notes,---this also was a pure conjecture or surmise on the part of the
Income-tax Officer. As regards the disclosed volume of business in the year under
consideration in the head office and in branches the Income-tax Officer indulged in
speculation when he talked of the possibility of the appellant earning a
considerable sum as against which it showed a net loss of about Rs. 45,000. The
Income-tax Officer indicated the probable source or sources from which the
appellant could have earned a large amount in the sum of Rs. 2,91,000 but the
conclusion which he arrived at in regard to the appellant having earned this large
amount during the year and which according to him represented the secreted
profits of the appellant in its business was the result of pure conjectures and
surmises on his part and had no foundation in fact and was not proved against the
appellant on the record of the proceedings. If the conclusion of the Income-tax
Officer was thus either perverse or vitiated by suspicions, conjectures or surmises,
the finding of the Tribunal was equally perverse or vitiated if the Tribunal took
count of all these probabilities and without any rhyme or reason and merely by a
rule of thumb, as it were, came to the conclusion that the possession of 150 high
denomination notes of Rs. 1,000 each was satisfactorily explained by the appellant
but not that of the balance of 141 high denomination notes of Rs. 1,000 each".