COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. M D KASTHURI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN pursuance of the order passed by this court in T. C. P. Nos. 63 and 64 of 1980 dated November 3, 1980, the Tribunal referred the following question of law for our opinion under section 256(2) of the INcome-tax Act, 1961. "Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal was justified in holding that the assessee is the owner of the property under consideration and that income therefrom is properly assessable in her hands ?"

(2.) THE property at Nos. 11 and 11A, Sait Colony, Egmore, Madras, was originally owned by one R. A. Sundaram Chettiar, who purchased the same under a sale deed dated March 16, 1955. Sundaram Chettiar died on March 6, 1960. On September 4, 1961, the legal heirs of the said Sundaram Chettiar, namely, Mrs. Saraswathi Ammal and others, mort gaged the said property under a mortgage deed for a sum of Rs. 1, 20, 000 to discharge the antecedent debts of Sundaram Chettiar. THE mortgage deed was executed in favour of one M. A. Ethirajulu Naidu, the father in-law of the assessee.