Law:

Section:

Section 17, read with section 16, of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 - Wealth escaping assessment - Assessment year 1989-90 - Whether when Assessing Officer invokes section 17, provisions of sections 14 and 16 to extent they are applicable for purpose of making an order of reassessment, will have to be followed which will include time-limit for notice under section 16(2) - Held, yes - Whether, therefore, while invoking powers under section 17, Assessing Officer is bound by mandate of proviso to section 16(2) and on failure to comply with it, order of reassessment will be without jurisdiction and, consequently, will have to be set aside - Held, yes FACTS On notice dated 19-8-1997, being issued under section 17, the assessee had filed a return of wealth on 14-10-1997. Thereafter, the Assessing Officer issued notice under section 16(2) on 24-9-1999 and made assessment. On appeal, the Commissioner (Appeals) held that the provisions of section 17 are similar to provisions of section 14 and as notice was issued beyond the time prescribed, the assessment was not correct, in law, and, therefore, was to be cancelled. On appeal, the Tribunal upheld the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) holding that section 16 is applicable to reassessment under section 17; and that the requirement of giving notice under the proviso to section 16(2) is a mandatory requirement and, consequently, notice has to be issued before the time prescribed by the proviso to section 16(2) expires. On revenue's appeal to the High Court : HELD Section 16 requires that if a return has been made under section 14 or section 15 and the Assessing Officer considers it necessary or expedient to ensure that the assessee has not understated the net wealth or has not underpaid the tax in any manner, he shall serve on the assessee a notice requiring him, on a date to be specified therein either to attend the office of the Assessing Officer or to produce, or cause to be produced there, any evidence on which the assessee may rely in support of the return. The proviso lays down a time frame for serving the notice under section 16(2). In other words, if the period of twelve months has expired from the date of filing of the…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492