Katikineni Venkata Gopala Narasimha ... vs Chitluri Venkataramayya on 30 April, 1940
A profit and loss statement filed by the assessee is evidence in the matter and the Income-tax Officer may draw it up himself, if he thinks it expedient to do so. It is common ground, that an order of assessment is a public document within the meaning of Section 74 and the decision in Venkataramana v. Varahalu (1940) 27 A.I.R. Mad. 308, that a statement recorded by an Income-tax Officer falls in the same category, has not been questioned. Now, if a statement recorded by an Income-tax Officer in the course of his examination of the assessee is a public document, it is difficult to sea why a statement handed in by the assessee disclosing the basis of the return called for should not be similarly regarded. Surely the test cannot be whether the profit and loss statement is actually drawn up by the Income-tax Officer.