2002 (10) TMI 70

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.... of Income tax (Appeals) cannot direct the Assessing Officer to redetermine the value of the property after referring the matter to the valuation cell?" The assessment years are 1988-89 and 1989-90. The assessee is a private limited company which owns several flats, three in Chennai, and one at Bombay. The Assessing Officer did not accept the valuation given by the assessee, but made an estimate of the value. The assessee challenged the estimate made by the Wealth-tax Officer of the value of these properties. It was urged by the assessee that the Wealth-tax Officer should have referred the matter to the valuation cell, and should not have made an estimate on his own. The Commissioner, in his order at paragraph 2.2, has noted thus: "Learn....

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....e to the Valuation Officer under section 16A of the Act, the Wealth-tax Officer has to form the requisite opinion as required by section 16A. That he should form such an opinion cannot be dictated to him by the appellate authority." The law so laid down in that case was followed in a subsequent ruling of the same court in the case reported in M.V. Kibe v. CWT [1988] 169 ITR 40. The scope of the appellate power under the provisions of the Income-tax Act was considered in the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court in the cases of CIT v. Kanpur Coal Syndicate [1964] 53 ITR 225; Jute Corporation of India Ltd. v. CIT [1991] 187 ITR 688 and CIT v. Nirbheram Daluram [1997] 224 ITR 610. That the power of the appellate authority is as wide as that....

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....appellate power under the Wealth-tax Act, as in that Act also, no restriction or limitation has been placed on the appellate power. Section 23, Sub-section (5), of the Wealth tax Act, inter alia, provides that the Commissioner (Appeals) "may pass such order as he thinks fit which may include an order enhancing the assessment or penalty". The proviso thereunder requires the Commissioner to give reasonable opportunity to the assessee to show cause against any proposed enhancement of the assessment or penalty. There is no other restriction placed upon the powers of the Commissioner (Appeals). The Commissioner (Appeals), when he entertains the appeal under the provisions of the Wealth-tax Act, is, therefore, as competent as the Wealth-tax Offi....