Law:

Section:

Section 17 of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 - Reassessment - General - In a suit filed before High Court, assessee claimed to be owner of certain property - In view of said claim, WTO issued assessee notice under section 17 for reopening assessment - Assessee subsequently filed an affidavit before High Court affirming that that he had withdrawn suit by giving up his plea of ownership of said property - Whether in view of unequivocal position thus emerging, resulting in assessee not being owner of said property nor claiming to be so, notice under section 17 was to be quashed being infructuous - Held, yes FACTS The assessee claimed to be the owner of an immovable property. This claim was also set up in a suit filed by him in the same High Court. To the said suit, the Union of India was a party defendant and it had been all along till then treating the said property to be not that of the assessee but of his late father. However, in view of the claim of ownership set up by the assessee, a notice under section 17 was issued by the WTO for reopening the assessment on the ground that the assessee's net wealth chargeable to tax for the relevant assessee year had escaped assessment. On writ challenging the issued of the said notice, the assessee affirmed in an affidavit filed before the High Court that he had given up the plea of ownership to the said property, that he had dropped the Union of India as defendant and that he was not the owner of the said property. HELD The assessee was an attorney of the High Court and there was no reason why his solemn statement on affidavit should not be accepted by the High Court. His affidavit made it clear that he did not claim to be the owner of the said property. Further, he had even dropped the Union from the array of defendants in his suit. Indeed, subsequently he had withdrawn the said suit itself. Though he had subsequent to the withdrawal of the said suit, filed a fresh suit, he had in the said suit not claimed any ownership rights in the said property. In view of the unequivocal position thus emerging, resulting in the assessee not being the owner of the said property not claiming to be so, the impugned notice was rendered in…

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