Legal representative not liable for penalty on deceased assessee's belated wealth-tax return under the Wealth-tax Act

Penalty for belated filing of a wealth-tax return by a deceased assessee cannot be imposed on the legal representative under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957. Section 19 fastens the representative only to wealth-tax payable by the deceased or sums already payable, and it does not extend to a penalty arising from a default committed after death or one not attributable to the representative. The Act permits assessment of the deceased's net wealth through the legal representative, but it does not deem the representative to have committed the deceased's default under section 18. In the absence of an express deeming fiction, the liability remains confined to the estate and amounts already due from the deceased.

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Issues: Whether penalty for belated filing of a wealth-tax return by a deceased assessee can be levied on the legal representative under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957.

Analysis: Section 19(1) fastens liability on the legal representative only for wealth-tax assessed as payable by the deceased or any sum already payable by him, which may include an accrued penalty liability of the deceased, but it does not create liability for a penalty arising from a default committed after death or from a default not attributable to the legal representative. Section 19(2) permits assessment of the deceased's net wealth through the legal representative where no return was filed or an incorrect or incomplete return was filed, and section 19(3) extends sections 14, 15 and 17 to the legal representative; however, that extension does not create a fiction that the legal representative committed the deceased's default under section 18. The corresponding income-tax provisions contained an express deeming fiction in section 159(2)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which was absent from the Wealth-tax Act, and the Court declined to import such a double fiction by judicial interpretation.

Conclusion: Penalty cannot be levied on the legal representative of a deceased assessee for the belated filing of the return by the deceased assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of an express statutory deeming provision, a legal representative cannot be saddled with penalty for a default committed solely by the deceased assessee; liability under the Wealth-tax Act is confined to the estate and to sums already payable by the deceased.

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