CONTROLLER OF ESTATE DUTY Vs. JOHN DSOUZA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, under section 64(1) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 (hereinafter called "the Act"), has stated a case and referred for the opinion of this court the following question of law :

(2.) MRS. Alice St. John Ives, domiciled in India, died on April 8, 1962, and an account of the property passing on her death was filed by the accountable person before the Deputy Controller of Estate Duty, Southern Zone, Madras, on October 10, 1962, declaring the net principal value of the estate at Rs. 12,11,674. The Deputy controller computed the net principal value at Rs. 18,07,853 which included a sum of Rs. 7,14,000 the value of the deceased's interest in B. C. Alexander Trust, U. K. In the appeal preferred by the accountable person before the Appellate Controller of Estate Duty, New Delhi, the inclusion of the said sum of Rs. 7,14,000 in the principal value was upheld; he, however, reduced the principal value by a sum of Rs. 7,320.

(3.) THE question of raised is one on which there is not decision of any court. Sri Rajasekhara Murthy, learned counsel for the department, urged that the instant case falls under section 21(1)(b)(i) and not under section 21(1)(b)(ii) of the Act as erroneously held by the Tribunal. He argued that, as the deceased was domiciled in India at the time of her death, the value of the property in question has to be included in the principal value of her estate; that clause (ii) applied only to a case where the deceased was domiciled outside India at the time of death but the settlor was domiciled in India at the date the settlement took effect and, therefore, the Tribunal was in error in the view it has taken that the instant case came under clause (i).