Law:

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Section 18B of the wealth-tax act, 1957-Penalty-Commissioner's power to reduce or waive-Whether commissioner could reject application under section 18b on sole ground that there was delay in filing wealth-tax returns without exercising judicial discretion vested in him by section 18b-Held, no Facts The WTO initiated penalty proceedings for delayed filing of wealth-tax returns by the petitioner and imposed penalty on her. The petitioner applied to the Commissioner under section 18B for waiver of the penalty imposed by the WTO. The Commissioner rejected the petitioner's application on the sole ground that there was delay in filing the wealth-tax returns. The petitioner contended that the Commissioner had rejected the application on irrelevant considerations and had not exercised the judicial discretion vested in him by section 18B. On writ: Held An application under section 18B is maintainable notwithstanding the fact that there has been delay in filing the returns. The delay in filing the returns is not and cannot be a ground for not considering the application on merits. In the instant case, the Commissioner had virtually failed to exercise the judicial discretion vested in him by law by taking irrelevant considerations and not taking relevant considerations. In this view, the impugned order was liable to be quashed. The Commissioner was, therefore, directed to re-examine the application and dispose it of in accordance with law. ORDER PUTTASWAMY, J.-Among others, the petitioner is an assessee under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 ('the Act'). 2. For the assessment years 1971-72, 1974-75 and 1976-77, the petitioner filed her returns before the Second WTO beyond the period provided by the Act and on an examination of them, the WTO completed the assessments and notices of demands were also issued. Sometime thereafter the WTO initiated proceedings for imposition of penalty for filing delayed returns against the petitioner and imposed a penalty of Rs. 25,454 against her for the aforesaid arrears. 3. On 1-4-1978, the petitioner filed an application before the Commissioner under section 18B of the Act praying for waiver of the penalty imposed by the WTO (Exhibit C). On…

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