COMMISSIONER OF WEALTH-TAX Vs. J K SRIVASTAVA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are eight connected applications relating to different assessment years under Section 27(3) of the W.T. Act, 1957. The Appellate Tribunal refused to state the case on the ground that no question of law arose and, therefore, the Department has now come up in the instant applications and in support of the same, we have heard the learned counsel for the Deparment. In opposition, we have heard the learned counsel for the respondent, Sri R.S. Dhawan. The learned counsel for the Department contended that, in the instant case, a question of law did arise and the Appellate Tribunal was in error in thinking that no question of law arose and also it erred in thinking that even if a question of law arose, the answer was self-evident and, therefore, it was not necessary to make a reference.

(2.) To appreciate the rival contentions of the learned counsel, certain facts, in brief, may be stated. The respondent-assessee was assessed as an individual during the assessment years 1969-70 to 1976-77. His father, Sri J. P. Srivastava, who died on December 15, 1954, made a gift during his lifetime to the former and to his grandson, Sri V.K. Srivastava. These amounts were invested and the income therefrom was held by the AAC in the appeals for the assessment years 1954-55 and 1956-57 to belong to an association of persons, where the shares of the members were indeterminate and, therefore, liable to tax at the maximum-rate and for the subsequent assessment years, both according to the income-tax return and the income-tax assessment, the income from these assets was assessed in the status of an association of persons, where the shares of the members of the association of persons were not determinate.

(3.) In the wealth-tax assessment of the respondent-assessee, Sri J. K. Srivastava, the WTO included half share of the said assessee in the association of persons consisting of the said assessee and his said son to whom, as stated above, gifts had been made by the late Sri J. P. Srivastava during his lifetime. The other half share in the said association of persons was presumably included in the assessment of Sri V.K. Srivastava, the son of Sri J.K. Srivastava, who was taken to be the other member of the said association of persons.