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2014 (1) TMI 415 - HC - Wealth-taxPenalty under section 18(1)(c) - Tribunal Upheld penalty but reduced the amount - Prior approval of the requisite authority - Valuation of immovable property - Held that:- Section 7 of the Wealth Tax Act is emphatic which provides that valuation shall be made as provided in Schedule III. Therefore, no other mode of valuation was permissible. The contention that schedule III does not apply to a vacant piece of land is not acceptable. The caption of part ‘B’ of schedule III is “immovable property”. It is difficult to proceed on the basis that the expression does not include a vacant piece of land. If that were the intention of the legislature then the vacant piece of land cannot taxed at all. It is no doubt true that the provisions contained chapter ‘B’ of schedule III refer to a vacant piece of land appurtenant to a building which is not the case before us. Considering that the Act provides for valuation in the manner indicated therein, it is difficult if not impossible to hold that any other mode of valuation is permissible - filing of the valuation report along with the return was not mandatory. Production of the same at the time of hearing was enough. The assessee cannot be denied a right to adduce evidence to substantiate his contention at the hearing. It was the obligation of the Income Tax Officer to indicate in his order that he passed the order after obtaining requisite approval. Since the order passed by the Income Tax Officer does not contain the requisite recital, it has to be held that no such approval was obtained. The order itself is incompetent. An incompetent order is a nullity and the point as regards nullity can be taken at any stage. It can even be taken at the stage of execution. Even if the orders imposing penalty were not set aside by us, which we propose to do, the order could not have been executed - Decided in favour of assessee.
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