COMMISSIONER OF GIFT TAX Vs. K KRISHNAKUMARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AT the instance of the Revenue, the following question has been referred for the opinion of this Court under s. 26(1) of the GT Act.

(2.) THE assessment year involved is 1980-81. THE assessee made taxable gift for the previous year 1979-80 and she submitted return for the said assessment year. THE GTO noticed that in the earlier asst. yr. 1979-80, he has held that the value of the gift made to PSG Naidu & Sons Charities was a taxable gift, and taking into account of the value of taxable gift made to the said trust made in the earlier assessment year applied the provisions of aggregation found in s. 6A of the GT Act and aggregated the same with the value taxable during the year 1980-81 and levied gift-tax for the asst. yr. 1980-81. THE assessee filed an appeal challenging the aggregation made of the earlier year's gift on the ground that the taxable gift to the said charities was the subject-matter of the appeal before the Tribunal and the Tribunal had found that the gift made to the said charities was not taxable gift. THE CIT(A) followed the order of the Tribunal for the asst. yr. 1979-80 and held that the gift made to the said charities could not be treated as taxable gift and the value of the gift made by the assessee during the previous year cannot be aggregated. THE Revenue preferred an appeal before the Tribunal on the ground that the earlier order of the Tribunal had not become final. THE Tribunal followed its earlier order for the assessment year and held that the gift to the said Trust was not a taxable gift and hence the said gift cannot come in for the purpose of aggregation under the provisions of s. 6A of the GT Act.