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2016 (9) TMI 985 - HC - Wealth-taxReopening of assessment - claim of deduction of proportionate liability from the gross wealth of the appellant - Held that:- When once all the assets of the business are sought to be valued, the necessity to undertake individual or proportionate distribution of the debts is not required to be undertaken separately. It is a fundamental principle of law that no part of a Statute should be construed as carrying no meaning at all. Every provision must be construed as intended to achieve some purpose or object by the Statute Maker. In other words, no provision of the Statute can be treated as otiose or useless. Keeping those principles in mind, when the Proviso to Rule 14 is examined, it becomes clear that the same will be applicable where it is not possible to calculate the amount of debt that is utilised for purposes of acquiring each of the assets and the formula contained therein brings out the theory of proportionate liability and the principle that would become applicable. In that view of the matter, the Assessee has made a claim to extend the proportionate liability to the value of the 3 assets that was initially applied by the Assessing Officer, but however, it was taken up for re-examination under Section 17 of the Act. Unfortunately, the re-examination has not been confined to that specific area at all and it went into the merits of the matter. In normal circumstances, we would have remanded the matter back for consideration afresh by the Assessing Authority. But, however, due to lapse of more than 15 years period and also in view of the fact that the Wealth Tax Act itself has already been done away with, we find that no useful purpose would be served in remanding the matter and hence, we restore the original order passed by the Assessing Authority under Section 16(1) of the Act, and the appeals stand accordingly allowed to the extent indicated supra.
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