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Issues: Valuation of shares held by the assessee in a company for wealth tax assessment purposes.
Analysis: The judgment pertains to the assessment years 1959-60 to 1965-66, where the valuation of shares held by the assessee in a company was in question. The authorities, including the Appellate Tribunal, valued the shares using the break-up method mentioned in rule 1D of the Wealth-tax Rules, 1957. The question raised was whether rule 1D should have been applied for valuing the shares in the specific circumstances of the case. The court noted that the peculiar facts of the case involved a long line of litigation, including a previous decision where shares were to be transferred at face value. The Wealth-tax Act requires assets to be valued at the price they would fetch in the open market, but as the shares were unquoted equity shares, the break-up method was applied due to the difficulty in determining the market value. The Tribunal relied on a decision stating that the break-up value is the well-accepted method for valuing unquoted equity shares. However, the court observed that the break-up method should be used in exceptional circumstances or when the company is ripe for liquidation, as per previous Supreme Court decisions. In this case, the court found no exceptional circumstances or indication that the company was ready for liquidation. Considering the long legal dispute history and the previous directive to transfer shares at face value, the court concluded that the shares should be valued at face value as per the assessee's returns, and rule 1D valuation was not justified. The court answered the question referred to them in the negative, indicating that the valuation method under rule 1D was not appropriate in this case. Judge D. M. Patnaik concurred with the Chief Justice's decision.
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