JADAV DESAI S R Vs. WEALTH TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE applications filed by the petitioner under s. 18(2A) of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"), having been dismissed by the CWT, Mysore, Bangalore, in respect of the assessment years 1967-68, 1968-69 and 1969-70, by his order dated March 14, 1974, these writ petitions have been filed challenging the said orders as untenable and for quashing the same and directing the Commissioner to pass fresh order in accordance with law.

(2.) IT is contended by the petitioner that the order of the Commissioner which has been filed as Ex. E does not refer to any facts or circumstances justifying a conclusion that the returns had not been filed voluntarily and the conclusion is arbitrary and untenable and the rejection of the application on this ground is unjustified.

(3.) THE Commissioner referred to the notices that had been issued under s. 17 and came to the conclusion that the returns filed were not "voluntary" in the background that the notices had been issued. It is obvious that the Commissioner has missed the crucial fact that the waiver of penalty was in regard to the returns filed in the status of HUF and the notices under s. 17 of the Act were not to the HUF and were only in regard to the assessment as an individual and it is undisputed that the assessment as an individual was not correct and actually no such assessment exists. THE returns filed in the status of HUF and which have been accepted and acted upon were not pursuant to the notice under s. 17 or any notice under s. 14(2) of the Act. THEy were not filed under any compulsion, but they were filed by the assessee of his own accord. This view finds support from the observations in the case reported in [1976] 103 ITR 649 at page 652 (Shankara Apaya Swami v. WTO). Venkataramiah J. observed therein :