Schedule III valuation rules apply to pending wealth-tax assessments, and a separate assessee challenge is not barred by res judicata.

Schedule III to the Wealth-tax Act applied to a pending wealth-tax assessment because the valuation provision was procedural and governed the mode of determining market value, so the immovable property had to be valued under that Schedule. The assessee's separate challenge to the valuation was also maintainable because the Revenue's earlier appeal concerned a distinct challenge and did not adjudicate the point raised by the assessee; the earlier dismissal therefore did not operate as res judicata.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether Schedule III to the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 applied to the pending wealth-tax assessment for valuing the immovable property. (ii) Whether the Revenue's earlier appeal on the same valuation prevented the assessee from challenging the valuation in its own appeal.

Issue (i): Whether Schedule III to the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 applied to the pending wealth-tax assessment for valuing the immovable property.

Analysis: The assessment was pending when Schedule III came into force. The valuation provision was treated as procedural, following the principle that valuation rules which regulate the mode of determining market value operate as rules of evidence and apply to pending matters. The Court applied the settled position that Schedule III governs assessments pending on the relevant commencement date and that the market value must be determined in accordance with that Schedule.

Conclusion: Schedule III applied to the pending assessment, and the property had to be valued under that Schedule.

Issue (ii): Whether the Revenue's earlier appeal on the same valuation prevented the assessee from challenging the valuation in its own appeal.

Analysis: The Revenue's appeal and the assessee's appeal involved distinct challenges. The dismissal of the Revenue's appeal did not conclude the assessee's separate grievance, and the point now raised had not been adjudicated in the Revenue's appeal. The earlier dismissal therefore did not operate as res judicata against the assessee.

Conclusion: The assessee's challenge was maintainable and was not barred by res judicata.

Final Conclusion: The valuation was required to be made under Schedule III, and no referable question of law arose because the Tribunal's view accorded with the settled legal position.

Ratio Decidendi: A valuation provision governing pending wealth-tax proceedings is procedural and applies to all pending matters, and a prior dismissal of the Revenue's appeal on a distinct challenge does not bar the assessee's independent appeal on the same assessment issue.

---