BIBI AHMADI BEGUM Vs. CONTROLLER OF ESTATE DUTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Board constituted under Section 4, Estate Duty Act, 1953, has referred the following question under Section 64(1) of that Act (as it stood prior to its amendment in 1958) for the opinion of this court:

(2.) MOHD. Obedulla Khan died on March 7, 1958. On his death his widow, Bibi Ahmadi Begum, as the accountable person under Section 53 of the Act, filed an account of the properties comprised in the estate of the deceased. The net value of the estate was assessed at Rs. 40,025. The Assistant Controller of Estate Duty, Meerut, determined the principal value of the estate passing on the death of the deceased at Rs. 7,99,474 and the estate duty payable thereon at Rs. 1,11,144.80. Among other properties it included the value of a haveli in village Udaipur Kalan at Rs. one lakh. He found that the property had been gifted by the deceased to the accountable person in 1918, but the deceased continued to live there till the time of his death in the same manner after the gift as he was living before the gift. He held that the provisions of Section 10 of the Act were attracted and that, therefore, the property must be deemed to have passed on the death of the deceased. The accountable person appealed to the Board under Section 63 of the Act. Before the Board it was pointed out that while the property was gifted by the deceased to the accountable person in the year 1918, it was later transferred by the accountable person to a wakf-ul-aulad on July 10, 1922. It was admitted that the deceased continued to stay in the house but, it was urged, his residence there was as a mere licensee and it could not be said that the deceased was enjoying any benefit from the property. It was also pointed out that the donee had parted with the gifted property in favour of the wakf. Upon these considerations it was said that the provisions of Section 10 were not attracted.

(3.) SECTION 10 of the Act, as it stood at the relevant time, provided: