CONTROLLER OF ESTATE DUTY Vs. N A MERCHANT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE three references relate to the estate of the same deceased person though the accountable persons in the three reference are different and they raise the same question of law which has been referred to us and hence we will dispose of all the three references by this common judgment. The question which has been referred to us in each of the three reference is as follows :

(2.) THE facts giving rise to these three reference are that one Abdulhusen Gulamhusen, Merchant of Bombay (hereinafter referred to as 'the deceased'), died on February 8, 1959. The accountable persons filed returns under the provisions of the Estate Duty Act, 1953, and an assessment was made by the Deputy Controller of Estate Duty, Eastern Zone, on February 26, 1960. On February 21, 1962, a notice under section 59 of the Act was issued to the accountable person concerned for reopening of the assessment on the ground that some property had escaped levy of estate duty. The accountable persons raised objections to the reopening of the assessment under section 59. The Assistant Controller, by his order dated February 10, 1968, rejected the contentions of the accountable persons and reopened the assessment. Against the order of reassessment, the accountable persons filed three different appeals before the Appellate Controller. That officer by his common order dated January 31, 1968, allowed the appeals and set aside the reassessment orders which had been passed under section 59. The Appellate Controller came to the conclusion that section 59 under which action was taken by the Assistant Controller was not retrospective in operation and hence had no application in respect of the assessment which had been completed prior to the coming into force of section 59. It may be pointed out that when the Estate Duty Act was passed in 1953, there was no provision for reassessment of any kind and section 62 provided for certain rectification of mistakes, etc. In 1958, the Government suggested that certain amendments should be made to the Estate Duty Act and Bill was introduced in Parliament but the passage of the Bill through Parliament took considerable time and it was only on July 1, 1960, that the Amending Act, by which section 59 was brought on the statute book for the first time, came into force.

(3.) IN order to appreciate the legal position, we may point out that section 59 was freshly enacted by the Estate Duty (Amendment) Act, 1958 (Act 33 of 1958), and came into force with effect from July 1, 1960. A group of sections, sections 56 to 65 as they stand on the statute book today, was substituted in place of old sections 56 to 65 by this Amendment Act of 1958, and the originally enacted section 62 was repealed by the Amendment Act. Section 62 as originally enacted was as follows :