Law: Wealth Tax Act, 1957

Section: 18(1)(a),27

Wealth tax---Penalty-Levy of-Law applicable-Returns for assessment years 1961-62, 1962-63 and 1963-64 filed after due date, in November 1969--Amendment increasing rates of penalty from 1-4-1969-Law applicable is the law as on date when default occurred and not the law as amended. For the assessment years 1961-62, 1962-63 and 1963-64, the returns, which should have been filed by the assessee on the 30th June of the respective years, were filed on November 18, 1969. As the assessee did not file the returns in time, the W. T. O., after completing the assessment for each of these years, initiated penalty proceedings for delay in filing the returns and imposed penalties of Rs. 1,808 for 1961-62, Rs. 2,495 for 1962-63 and Rs. 2,240 for 1963-64 on the assessee. On appeal; the A. A. C. affirmed the order of the W. T. O. On further appeal, the Tribunal held that the amendment by the Finance Act, 1969, came into force on April 1, 1969, whereas the defaults were committed by the assessee on June 30, 1961, 30th June, 1962, 30th June, 1.963, and under the Act, before the amendment, the maximum penalty which could be imposed was a sum equal to 2% of the tax for every month during which the default continued but not exceeding in the aggregate 50 % of the tax and, on this basis, reduced the penalty. On a reference Held, that the assessee committed defaults in filing of the returns on the dates fixed for filing the returns, i.e., 30th June, 1961, 30th June, 1962 and 30th June, 1963, and the law for the purpose of the penalty that would be applicable would be the law in force on those dates and not the law which had been brought into force on April 1, 1969. Therefore, the decision of the Tribunal was right. C. W. T. v. Ram Narain Agrawal (1977) 106 I T R 965 (All.); C. G. T. v. C. Muthukumaraswamy Mudaliar (1975) 98 1 T R 540 (Mad.) ; C. W. T. v. P. C. M. Sundarapandian (1978) 114 I T R 367 (Mad.) ; C. W. T. v. C. S. Manvi (1978) 114 I T R 417 (Ker.) and C. W. T. v. V. R. Desai (1977) 108 I T R 787 (A P) fol. C. I. T. v. Bhan Singh Boota Singh (1974) 95 I T R 562 (Pb.) and C. I. T. v. Ramchand Kundanlal Saraf (1975) 96 I T R 474 (M P) ref. JUDGMENT G. L. OZA, J.-This is a…

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