Commissioner of Wealth-tax vs Arvind Nayyar

There is an apparent conflict of judicial opinion on the legal issue sought to be raised here. The High Court of Gauhati in Commissioner of Wealth-tax Vs. Harendra Prasad Singh and Another, and Commissioner of Wealth-tax Vs. Tarachand Agarwalla, as also the High Courts of Patna and Calcutta in Commissioner of Wealth Tax Vs. Nand Lal Jalan, and Commissioner of Wealth Tax Vs. Mira Mehta, , respectively, have taken one view while the contrary view has been expressed by the High Court of Madras in Purushothamdas Gocooldas and Others Vs. Commissioner of Wealth-tax, . In view of this conflict of views, this is clearly a fit case for us to direct the Tribunal to make a reference to this court of the question posed. We order accordingly.

[The question of law referred to the High Court was " whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal was right in law in allowing deduction u/s 5(1)(iv) of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957, in respect of the assessee''s share in land and building of the firm in which he is a partner ?" ]