PAPPU REDDIAR S Vs. COMMISSIONER OF GIFT TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) TWO questions have been referred to us in relation to the assessment year 1966-67. We shall extract those questions :

(2.) ONE Muthu Reddiar, who was a Hindu, got converted to Christianity and married a Christian woman thereafter. Sanjeevi Reddiar was born to the couple as also other children. After the death of Muthu Reddiar, there was a deed of partition. The deed was executed between the heirs of Muthu Reddiar on August 29, 1935. The properties left by Muthu Reddiar were divided among the said heirs. The widow of Muthu Reddiar was also given a life estate under a portion of the estate of Muthu Reddiar. Thereafter, Sanjeevi Reddiar, who got a share under the deed, improved the properties by his own efforts, and in the year 1966, there was a document styled as partition deed executed on March 31, 1966. In that document, there is no mention made to which religion the parties belong, though in the 1935 document the heirs of Muthu Reddiar were described as professing the Christian religion. However, in the 1966 document, the statement was made that the parties to that document were living together as a joint family and they were dividing the properties. These are the bare facts and these are the only essential facts on which we have to decide the case.