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TMI Blog1980 (4) TMI 78X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the estate of the deceased. The liability to assessment was upheld by the AAC. The details of the assessment are not relevant in view of the question referred to us. When the executor appealed against the order of the AAC, at the hearing the assessee sought permission to raise a new ground challenging the very liability to assessment. The ground was as follows: " The learned Wealth-tax Officer has erred in assessing the executors in respect of the assets left by the deceased." The assessee made no secret of the fact that this ground was raised on the authority of the decision of this court in Jamnadas v. CWT [1965] 56 ITR 648. As is well known, in that decision, this court had taken the view that there was no provision in the W.T. Act ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e question which has been referred to us now at the instance of the revenue is as follows: " Whether, in the facts and circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was competent to allow the assessee to raise a fresh ground of appeal not agitated before the lower wealth-tax authorities and which was not related to the subject-matter of the appeal ? " The only argument advanced on behalf of the revenue is that the Tribunal was in error in permitting the assessee to raise altogether a new ground challenging the liability to assessment. To, say the least, it is difficult to appreciate the attitude on the part of the revenue to resist the contention which goes to the root of the jurisdiction of the WTO to assess the assessee to wealth-tax. The rev ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uestion of law going to the root of the jurisdiction of the WTO and the question was whether the executor can be assessed to wealth-tax in respect of the estate of the deceased in his hands in the assessment year 1961-62 before s. 19A was enacted. The contention was based on a decision of this court. The Tribunal, in our view, had properly exercised its discretion in the interest of justice when it permitted the assessee to raise the point of jurisdiction before it. The question raised essentially relates to the propriety of the exercise of discretion by the Tribunal and the order of the Tribunal, out of which the reference has been made, does not seem to us to be the result of any erroneous or arbitrary exercise of jurisdiction. We are to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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