RAJA MOOKHERJEE Vs. WEALTH TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sir R.N. Mukherjee was a well-known industrialist. Sir R.N. Mukherjee died having executed a will under which he appointed an executor for administration of his estate. One Rabindra Nath Mukherjee being the grandson of Sir R.N. Mukherjee was entitled to one-third share in the estate of Sir R.N. Mukherjee (deceased). However, before the estate of Sir R.N. Mukherjee (deceased) was fully administered, Rabindra Nath Mukherjee died on September 20, 1975. Rabindra Nath Mukherjee had married one Mahamaya. The four petitioners are the four children of Mahamaya and Rabindra Nath Mukherjee. The petitioners have challenged the assessment orders in respect of the years 1968-69 to 1975-76 under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957, in which the petitioners have been sought to be assessed in respect of Rabindra Nath Mukherjee's one-third share in his grandfather's estate. According to the petitioners, their father, Rabindra, till the date of his death, had not received any portion of his grandfather's estate. Therefore, the question of the petitioners being assessed to wealth-tax in respect of their great grandfather's estate for the period prior to their father's death on September 20, 1975, did not arise. In any event, it is contended that the executors had themselves intimated Mahamaya Mukherjee by a letter dated September 24, 1979, that the administration of the estate of Sir R.N. Mukherjee (deceased) was not complete.

(2.) Smt. Mahamaya Mukherjee filed wealth-tax returns for the assessment years 1968-69 to 1975-76 pursuant to notices issued by the Wealth-tax Officer being respondent No. 1 herein under Section 17 of the Act. Smt. Mahamaya Mukherjee disclosed movable and immovable properties in her returns which her husband, Rabindra Nath Mukherjee, had acquired out of his personal assets. Wealth-tax was paid in respect of the assessment years in question.

(3.) Respondent No. 1 completed the assessments in respect of the years 1968-69 to 1975-76 describing the assessee as "Mahamaya Mukherjee and others, the legal representative of the late Sir R.N. Mukherjee". In the assessment orders, the valuation shown by Smt. Mahamaya Mukherjee in her returns was accepted but the respondents included Rabindra Mukherjee's one-third share in the estate of Sir R. N. Mukherjee.