COMMISSIONER OF WEALTH TAX Vs. S S MOTHILAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE tax cases petitions are filed by the Commissioner under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (Act No. 27 of 1957 - for short "the W.T. Act"), for issuance of a direction to the Tribunal to state a case and refer the common questions of law, as below for the opinion of this court :

(2.) THE assessee, Mr. S. S. Mothilal, Madras, it appears, holds some unquoted equity shares in Sholinghur Textiles Limited. In the wealth-tax assessment proceedings relating to the assessment years 1985-86, 1986-87 and 1987-88, the assessee declared the value of the shares on yield basis and the same was accepted by the Assessing Officer and consequently completed the assessments accordingly under section 16(1) of the Wealth-tax Act for all those assessment years.

(3.) THE said learned counsel representing the Revenue drew our attention to a recent decision of the apex court of this country in the case of Bharat Hari Singhania v. CWT [1994] 207 ITR 1, wherein their Lordships of the Supreme Court, referring to a catena of decisions emerging from the Supreme Court, inclusive of the decision in CGT v. Kusumben D. Mahadevia (Smt.) [1930] 122 ITR 38 (SC), ultimately held that the valuation of the unquoted shares should be made on the basis of the break-up method under rule 1D of the Wealth-tax Rules mandatorily and no option is inhering in favour of the Assessing Officer to value such shares in any other method.