1990 (8) TMI 110

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....EEVAN REEDY C. J. -This writ petition is filed against an order of the Commissioner of Wealth-tax dismissing the petitioner's application made under section 18B of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957, in part. A few relevant facts need be stated. The petitioner filed his wealth-tax returns for the assessment years 1973-74, 1974-75, 1975-76 and 1976-77, on a single day, namely, October 20, 1978. For the as....

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.... not to be repeated here. Suffice it to say that the petition survived only in respect of the penalties under section 18(1)(a) for the assessment years 1973-74, 1974-75, 1976-77 and 1978-79 to 1982-83. It was these penalties that were dealt with by the Commissioner in the impugned order. The Commissioner found that the petitioner's plea of good faith is acceptable with respect to the assessment ye....

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....r but in this case since the petitioner has committed default for year after year, this is not in good faith for subsequent years." An important part of the reasoning of the Commissioner is to be found in the following extract from his order: "In my view, the concession available as held by the Hon'ble Allahabad High Court in the case was to facilitate voluntary disclosure of the concealed i....

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....to be interpreted fairly and reasonably." We are not satisfied that the Commissioner is right in holding that merely because the assessee filed returns on different dates, there is no room for inferring good faith. Good faith is essentially a question of fact and not a question of law. There was nothing wrong in law in the petitioner making one application for waiver for all the ten concerned y....