Law:

Section:

Section 2(e), read with section 7, of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 - Asset - Assessment years 1957-58 to 1959-60 - Assessee owned vast agricultural lands which by virtue of provisions of West Bengal Estate Acquisition Act, 1953, came to vest in State Government - Whether value of right of assessee to receive compensation for acquisition of his land was an 'asset' which had to be evaluated and included in net wealth of assessee as on relevant valuation dates - Held, yes - Whether value of such right to receive compensation could only be present value of future compensation - Held, yes FACTS The assessee owned vast agricultural properties which by virtue of the provisions of the West Bengal Estate Acquisition Act came to vest in the State Government. The assessee was entitled to receive compensation in respect of the lands. While completing the assessments pertaining to the assessment years 1957-58 to 1959-60, the WTO estimated the compensation payable to the assessee and included it in the net wealth of the assessee. On appeal, the AAC also upheld the WTO's orders. On second appeal the Tribunal, however, held that the assessee had no right to receive any compensation on the respective valuation dates for the acquisition of his estates by the State Government. Therefore, the addition made by the WTO was deleted from the net wealth of the assessee. On reference, the High Court upheld the order of the Tribunal. On appeal by the revenue: HELD Following the decision in the case of Pandit Lakshmi Kant Jha v. CWT [1973] 90 ITR 97 (SC) the preparation of the compensation roll, the determination of the precise amounts due and a decision as to the mode of payment of the amounts, are all matters to be sorted out in course of time but all this does not alter the position that, as on the date on which the estate vested in the Government, a right to receive compensation had accrued in favour of the assessee and that right was a valuable asset which was includible in the net wealth of the assessee. Further, in view of the said decision merely because the quantification of compensation or its payment was deferred, the right to receive compensation did not cease to be an asset…

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