Summary:
more-inThe daughters of the last Maharaja of Mysore Sr.
Jayachamaraja Wadiyar may have to pay hundreds of crores of rupees as wealth tax on the land around the famous Bangalore Palace for the assessment years from 1999 to 2005. The Karnataka High Court on Thursday held that the land held by the daughters through partition deeds attract wealth tax for the assessment period irrespective of the pending litigation over the validity of the law on acquisition of the palace and land appurtenant. The department had made the ‘protective assessment’ of wealth tax with respect to all the five daughters, who had received around 28 acres each through partition deed in 1984. The tribunal had held that these ‘urban lands’ do not fall within the definition of ‘assets’ under Section 2 (ea)(b) of the Wealth-Tax Act, 1957 and hence were excluded from the wealth tax ambit. “Such diagonally opposite stand of assessees in courts of law to serve their purposes is legally not permissible..