High Court Of Madras
Commissioner Of Wealth Tax vs. P.C. Nanjappan
Sections WT 25(2)
Asst. Year 1982-83
R. Jayasimha Babu & Mrs. A. Subbulakshmy, JJ.
Tax Cases Nos. 188 & 189 of 1991
18th June, 2001
Counsel Appeared
None, for the Revenue : P.P.S. Janardhana Raja, for the Assessee
JUDGMENT
R. JAYASIMHA BABU, J. :
For the asst. yr. 1982-83, the wealth-tax assessment of the assessee was finalised. The wealth-tax was, as required by law, levied on his net wealth as on the valuation date. Long thereafter, the property, which had been valued at a lower figure was sold at a price which was more than the amount for which it had been valued at the time the assessment for the year 1982-83 was made. The attempt on the part of the Revenue to reopen the assessment and incorporate the price at which the property was subsequently sold as the value of the property for the earlier assessment year was rightly negatived by the Tribunal. The correctness of that decision has been called into question by the Revenue in this reference.
2. We do not see any error in the order of the Tribunal. The fact that the property fetched a higher value when it was sold some years after the assessment for the wealth-tax had been made, is no reason at all to reopen the concluded assessment, and to substitute a price which was secured years, later, as the value of the property in the earlier period. The wealth-tax is payable on the net wealth for the relevant assessment year, and that net wealth cannot be regarded as having been much more only because several years after the assessment, the property when sold fetched a higher price.
We, therefore, answer the question referred to us in favour of the assessee, and against the Revenue.
[Citation : 254 ITR 588]
