1992 (11) TMI 158

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..... 36 sft. of land attached to the property at Huzur Garden and covered by a road. In the wealth-tax proceedings the assessee claimed exemption of the property covered by the road on the ground that it is being used as road not only by the assessee and its employees, but also the owners and employees of the neighbouring properties abutting the road. The Assessing Officer relying on the report of the Valuation Officer, valued the property covered by the road at Rs. 17,53,600 negativing the exemption claimed by the assessee. The Commissioner (Appeals) though accepted that easement rights have been granted by the assessee in respect of the owners abutting the road, still he computed the value of the property to the assessee on the ground that the .....

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..... conveyed to the various purchasers and hence the assessee cannot be considered as having absolute right over this property. Hence it is contended that the value of the property covered by the road should be taken as Nill. The Departmental Representative, on the other hand, supported the order of the departmental authorities and further contended that though the neighbouring owners abutting the road have got a right of easement, still the assessee continues to be the owner and hence some value must be given to this property. 4. We have heard the rival submissions and have gone through the material on record as well as the plan placed by the assessee's counsel in the paper book filed. From the plan it is clear that the site covered by the r .....

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..... come. Hence no purchaser would be willing to pay anything for this road even though the assessee may have legal title to the property with the power to dispose of the same. Hence it has no marketable value. 5. For the purpose of wealth-tax, the property owned by an assessee has to be valued taking the market value as on the valuation date. As this property which is covered by the road has no marketable value on the relevant valuation date, the same should be treated as nil. the CWT (Appeals) reduced the value of the property on the ground that it is only an emcumbrance and hence a deduction of 20 per cent was granted. But as there is no marketable value as found by us, the same should be treated as nil. In view of the above finding, we se .....

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