TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1986 (5) TMI 69
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....------------------------------------------------- Assessment Due date for Dates on which Penalty Effect of the order year filing of the the returns have imposed of the learned first return been filed Rs. appellate authority ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1969-70 31-7-1969 31-12-1975 &....
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.... to grant of immunity under the above scheme with regard to late filing of returns. (iii) Alleged notices under section 17 of the Act issued for the assessment years 1969-70, 1970-71, 1972-73 and 1973-74 were never served on the assessee. (iv) The penalty orders are bad in law since these are not speaking orders and do, in no way, establish the default of the assessee. The learned AAC observed that the WTO does not mention in the penalty orders as to how the immunity for late filing of wealth-tax return was not given to the assessee and his finding on other contentions raised on behalf of the assessee are to the following effects : (i) The assessee has admitted that the show-cause notices issued on23-3-1979were duly served on him. (ii) That notices for date of hearing fixed for6-3-1981have been duly served by affixture on3-3-1981. (iii) That the WTO had already initiated assessment proceedings under section 14/17 of the Act for the various years under appeal requiring the assessee to file his net wealth-tax returns. The learned AAC detailed these notices as under : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ....
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.... same person 1971-72 No notice issued 1972-73 Notice under 8-1-1973 24-1-1973 Served on Shri Guru Dutt section 14 Statement accompanying  ....
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....-------------------------------------------------------- He yet further held that there should be no dispute for the assessment year 1973-74 since the notice has been served on the assessee's son, Shri Arun Talwar. About the assessment years 1967-68 and 1968-69 (which years are not subject matters of appeal) he observed that assessments were completed on 30-3-1973 and one Shri Guru Dutt had represented the assessee for both the years and it was only on 24-2-1979 that the WTO received a telegram from the assessee informing the WTO that Shri Guru Dutt Sharma was not authorised to represent the assessee. The learned AAC, as such, held that notices served on Shri Guru Dutt Sharma and assessee's son Shri Arun Talwar were valid since the service of notices on these two persons was in accordance with the law. The notices alleged to have been issued by the department under section 14/17 for the assessment years 1969-70, 1970-71 and 1972-73 were held to be legal. For the assessment years 1971-72, 1974-75 and 1975-76, the learned AAC held that no notices have been issued and accordingly the assessee was entitled to claim of immunity under the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme and no penalty ....
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....nbsp; Yours faithfully, Encl - 1. Guru Dutt Sharma." Self-assessment payments relating to the assessment years 1969-70 and 1970-71 has been placed on our file as assessee's paper book pages 10 and 11. These have been relied upon for the purposes of proving the factum of the assessee having filed original returns of net wealth. Original assessment records were also produced for our perusal by the learned departmental representative and this fact stands verified from the records also. So once it is so, i.e., that original returns stood filed under section 14(1) for the assessment years 1969-70 and 1970-71, it....
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....se of any other association of persons be addressed to the principal officer thereof. (3) After a finding of total partition has been recorded by the Wealth-tax Officer under section 20 in respect of any Hindu family, notices under this Act in respect of the net wealth of the Hindu family shall be served on the person who was the last manager of the Hindu family, or, if such person is dead, then on all surviving adults who were members of the Hindu family immediately before the partition." 7. A bare reading of the above is sufficient enough to hold that a notice or a requisition under the Act is to be served on the person therein named. The service can be by post or as if it were a summons issued by a Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. Primarily the alleged notices under section 17 having not been served on the person therein named the finding has to be in favour of the assessee, i.e., that notices served on Shri Guru Dutt Sharma and Shri Arun Talwar, the assessee's son, were not legal and valid notices till such time it is shown that these two gentlemen were authorised by the assessee to receive such notices. The perusal of the assessment records as already menti....