1975 (6) TMI 13

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....he provisions of section 18(1)(a) of the Act calling upon the petitioner to pay penalties as provided by law. Aggrieved by the orders passed by the Wealth-tax Officer levying the penalties, the petitioner approached the Commissioner of Wealth-tax with applications under subsection (2A) of section 18 of the Act, requesting him to exercise his discretion and to reduce or waive the amount of penalties imposed on him. The Commissioner rejected both the applications. While doing so, he observed as follows : From 1969-70 onwards there was no reason why he should have delayed filing of returns when he was conscious of the provisions of law leading to wealth-tax liability. This in my opinion amounts to a conscious disregard of the law and the de....

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....rovisions contained in section 18(1) of the Act. In cases coming under section 18(2A) of the Act, the considerations which should weigh with the Commissioner necessarily have to be different from the considerations which would weigh while determining whether the assessee has reasonable cause for not filing the returns in time or not. It is not the case of the authorities that the assessee has failed to disclose all his wealth which is liable to payment of wealth-tax. The penalties levied for the year 1969-70 is Rs. 6,318 and for the year 1970-71 is Rs. 7,560, whereas the tax payable was Rs. 162 and Rs. 280 respectively. It is no doubt true that in order to ensure due observance of law, section 18(1)(a) provides for the levy of a penalty ....

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.... to be held that the words in question relate to the return which is filed beyond time without reasonable cause. If in that return the assessee has " voluntarily and in good faith, made full disclosure of his net wealth " the condition mentioned in clause (a) stands satisfied. The expression " voluntarily " means " without compulsion " and " good faith " means " with due care and caution ". Hence, if the return filed by the assessee does not show that he has deliberately furnished wrong particulars about his wealth or deliberately omitted to include all the items of taxable wealth then he should be considered as having satisfied the above condition. In these cases it is not suggested by the revenue that there has been any concealment of tax....