COMMISSIONER OF GIFT TAX Vs. YATESHWARI SARADAPRIYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application filed by the Revenue under s. 26(3) of the G.T. Act for a direction to the Tribunal to refer the following question for the opinion of this court :

(2.) THE assessee in this case made a gift of a property worth about Rs. 2,50,000 to "Ram Sita Educational Trust." When the GTO proposed to bring that gift to charge, the assessee contended that she was entitled to exemption under s. 5(1)(v) of the G.T. Act in respect of the said gift. This contention was rejected by the GTO on the ground that she was not entitled to exemption in respect of the said gift, as it was an initial gift made by the assessee to the Trust. THE assessee took the matter in appeal to the AAC and the AAC accepted the contention of the assessee that the gift was exempt under s. 5(1)(v) of the Act. THE Revenue took the matter further in appeal to the Tribunal, objecting to the grant of exemption under s. 5(1)(v) on the ground that the gift in question was not made to an already established trust or fund, but constituted the nucleus of the fund itself. THE Tribunal, relying on the decision of the Bombay High Court in Yogendra N. Mafatlal's case [1965] 58 ITR 40, and the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Lachman Dass Oswal's case ), held that even an initial gift would be entitled to exemption under s. 5(1)(v). This view of the Tribunal is question by the Revenue.