RAGHAVA MUDALIAR M Vs. COMMISSIONER OF GIFT TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE first of these tax cases raises a question of assessment to gift-tax for the years 1968-69 and 1969-70, and the other case, T.C. No. 255 of 1974, is concerned with the assessment of wealth-tax for the year of assessment 1968-69. THE assessee in both these cases is the same individual, one Raghava Mudaliar, who is admittedly the head of a Hindu undivided family.

(2.) THE questions that have been referred to us in the two tax. cases, respectively, read as follows :

(3.) GOING back to the preamble of the document dated March 6, 1968, there could be little doubt as is seen from the statement in para. 3 of the preamble of the document which we have extracted already that all the members of the family including the assessee treated the entire amount of Rs. 3,35,881 as the property belonging to the HUF and they divided the entire property by that document and by the document of August 8, 1968, and utilised the balance exclusively for the benefit of the HUF. It is true that there is a statement in para. 3 of the preamble extracted above that the ticket was purchased from out of the joint family money. There was an attempt made by the Tribunal to discredit that statement and the Tribunal doubted the possibility of joint family funds having been utilised for purchasing the ticket. The Tribunal also observed that the winning of a prize is as a result of the individual act and luck of a person.