On appeal, however, the Appellate Tribunal took the view that the law applicable for imposing the penalty will be the law as it stood on the first day of the assessment year in question and, accordingly, it directed that so far as the assessment year 1967 68 was companycerned, the penalty should be recomputed on the basis of the tax sought to be avoided and calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Act as they stood before the amendment on April 1, 1969.
Hence, this appeal by the department.
This is an appeal by certificate from judgment of the Allahabad High Court P. N. Banerjee v. CWT , in a wealth tax reference.
Under the new provisions, the penalty was to be calculated with reference to the net wealth whereas earlier the penalty had to be calculated with reference to the amount of tax sought to be avoided.
This view of the Tribunal was companyfirmed by the High Court following its own earlier decision in CWT v. Ram Narain Agrawal .
The Income tax Officer levied a penalty on the former basis because the return had been filed on June 12, 1971.
In between April 1, 1967 which was the first day of the assessment year 1967 68 and the date when the return was filed, there was an amendment of the provisions of Section 18 1 a of the Wealth tax Act, 1957.
The return, however, was filed only on June 12, 1971.
For the assessment year 1967 68, the wealth tax return by the asses see was due to be filed on or before June 30, 1967.
