PUSHPA DEVI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order will dispose of S. B. Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 951 of 1981 and 1492 of 1981 filed by the petitioner, Smt. Pushpa Devi.

(2.) THE petitioner is an assessee under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957. Her status is that of an individual. At the time of the assessment for the year 1967-68, the petitioner explained the source of acquisition of 150 tolas of gold ornaments by stating that they were received by her from her mother, mother-in-law and other relatives and also on the occasions of birth of child, marriage of other relatives, etc. THE Wealth-tax Officer, by his order dated February 10, 1969, assessed the petitioner for a total wealth amounting to Rs. 1,52,889 which included the value of the said ornaments. THE petitioner has been filing the returns for the purposes of assessment under the provisions of the Wealth-tax Act and the assessments have been completed up to the assessment year 1976-77 and the assessing authorities throughout accepted the declaration of the said gold ornaments as her wealth. THE petitioner's husband is Shyam Sundar Dhoot. He is a separate assessee under the provisions of the Wealth-tax Act as well as the Income-tax Act (No. XLIII of 1961) (for short, " the Act "). THE mother-in-law of the petitioner, Smt. Rukma Bai Dhoot, was also assessed separately under the Wealth-tax Act. Both of them were regularly submitting separate returns and paying taxes as per the assessment orders duly passed in their cases from time to time. According to the petitioner, she owned and possessed 150 tolas of old gold ornaments disclosed in the returns. THE petitioner's husband and her mother-in-law possessed 150 tolas and 200 tolas of gold ornaments, respectively.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the parties stated before the court on May 5, 1982, that in view of the controversy involved in the writ petition and in the circumstances of the case, the writ petition may finally be disposed of at the admission stage. They also submitted that the pleadings of the parties are complete in all respects. Mr. B. L. Maheswari submitted that he wants to file one list of ornaments and for that he wanted time. That list has been filed on August 20, 1982.