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Section 18(1)(a), read with section 27, of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 - Penalty - For late filing of return - Assessee filed his wealth-tax return belatedly - Explanation given by assessee was not found satisfactory by ITO, AAC or Tribunal - Whether question whether explanation is reasonable or not being a pure question of fact, penalty imposed on assessee had to be sustained - Held, yes Facts The assessee filed his wealth-tax return two months late, i.e. , on 29-8-1969 instead of 30-6-1969. The WTO imposed penalty under section 18(1)(a) for the period of default. On appeal to the AAC, it was submitted that the Imposition of penalty was improper and illegal as the assessee had shown reasonable cause for the delay in filing the return. The assessee contended that most of his assets consisted of shares in a company 'H' and as these snares were not quoted on the stock exchange, he had to wait till the balance sheet of 'H' was prepared which was on 2-8-1969. The AAC rejected the contention on the ground that the return was not filed even immediately after 2-8-1969 and the assessee also did not apply for time before the WTO showing his difficulty in preparing the return. On second appeal the Tribunal upheld the order of the AAC and observed that the assessee himself being a director in the said company could not escape his statutory responsibility and no reasonable explanation was, therefore, given. On reference: Held Whether an explanation is reasonable or not is a pure question of fact. None of the revenue authorities nor the Tribunal accepted the circumstances put forth by the assessee as reasonable. The concurrent finding of fact, therefore, was that there was no reasonable cause for late filing of the return as found by the AAC as well as by the Tribunal. Therefore, the penalty was leviable under section 18(1)(a ) for two months. K.N. Jain and Rameshwar Prasad for the Applicant. B.P. Rajgarhia and S.K. Sharan for the Respondent. JUDGMENT 1. This is a reference under section 27(1) of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 ('the Act'). The following two questions have been referred to this Court for our opinion: "1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the…

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