Mere non-production of the party during assessment alone cannot be a basis to make disallowance, when all other supporting evidence have been filed to substantiate claim of expenditure such as bills, payment facts and confirmation.
A party did not appear before the AO in response to notice under section 133(6) for cross examination in (2022] 28 ITR (Trib)-OL 347 (ITAT[Chen]) which alone lead to adverse inference and disallowance of expenditure.