Rajendra Nath Mittal, J.

1. This wealth-tax reference has been made under Section 27(1) of the W.T. Act, 1957, at the instance of the assessee by the Wealth-tax Appellate Tribunal, Amritsar Bench, Amritsar.

2. Briefly, the facts are that the assessee filed his return of net wealth for the assessment year 1968-69 on September 16, 1968, showing a net wealth of Rs. 2,27,537. He owned 4,000 equity shares of M/s. Oswal Woollen Mills Ltd. which were unquoted. In the return, the value of the shares was shown by the assessee as Rs. 83,200 at the rate of Rs. 20.80 per share. The Wealth-tax Officer (hereinafter referred to as "the WTO") while examining the balance-sheet of M/s. Oswal Woollen Mills Ltd. found that the assessee had not properly valued the shares of the company. He determined the break-up value of the shares at Rs. 61.03 per share and adopted 82% of the break-up value of the shares as the market value on the valuation date. On that basis he worked out the value of the shares at Rs. 50.04 per share. Consequently, he determined the total value of the shares at Rs. 2,00,160.

3. After the completion of the assessment, the assessee made an application under Section 35 of the