Commissioner of Wealth-tax Vs. G Ramaswamy and Others. - Court Judgment

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head note: income tax wealth tax reference--question of fact--partial partion--applicability of s. 20a tribunal's holding that s. 20a would not be applicable to the partitions mad eon 9-2-1979 for asst. yr. 1979-80--in view of cbdt circular no. 281 dt. 22-9-1980 no question of law arose from tribunal's order held: the circular of the cbdt no. 281 of 1980 clarified that even though s. 20a had come into force with effect from 1-4-1980, the provisions thereof would be applicable in relation to the assessment year 1980-81 and the subsequent years and not to the earlier assessment years. the provisions of s. 20a cannot be made applicable to the assessee in respect of the asst. yr. 1979-80. in that view, the tribunal was quite right in declining to refer the question of law. - ratnam j. - under section 27(3) of the wealth-tax act, 1957, the revenue seeks a direction to the tribunal to refer the following common question of law for the opinion of this court :'whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the appellant tribunal is correct in law in holding that the amendment provisions of section 20a of the wealth-tax act would not be applicable to the partitions made on february 9, 1979, in relation to the assessment year 1979-80 ?'the question is whether the amended provisions of section 20a of the wealth-tax act would be applicable in respect of the partition dated february 9, 1979, in relation to the assessment year 1979-80. though in the earlier portion of section 20a of the wealth-tax act, partial partitions, which have taken place after december 31, 1978, would also be included, yet, by reason of the circular of the central board of direct taxes no. 281 of 1980 (see [1981] 131 itr 4, it had been clarified that even though section 20a of the wealth-tax act had come into force with effect from april 1, 1980, the provisions thereof would be applicable in relation to the assessment year 1980-81 and the subsequent years and not to the earlier assessment years. we are concerned in these cases with the assessment years 1979-80 and even according to the circular of the board referred to earlier, the amended provisions of section 20a cannot be made applicable to the assessees in respect of the assessment year 1979-80. in that view, the tribunal was quite right in declining to refer the question of law. we are also of the view that no referable question of law arises for consideration out of the order of the tribunal. these petitions are, therefore, dismissed. no costs.