COMMISSIONER OF INCOME-TAX Vs. VIMLA LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) One Sri Gulraj Gupta had purchased a property bearing No. 20, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, in the name of his wife, Smt. Lilawati Gupta; He died some time in 1940 leaving behind his widow, Smt. Lilawati Gupta, two sons, Sarvasri Hans Raj Gupta and Devraj Gupta, and one daughter, Smt. Vimla Lal, who is the respondent-assessee before us. After the death of Sri Gulraj Gupta his sons resisted the exclusive claim made to this property by Smt. Lilawati Gupta and one of them, that is, Sri Devraj Gupta, filed a suit for separate possession by partition in respect of this property, being Suit No. 70 of 1966. The defendants in the suit were Smt. Lilawati and Sri Hans Raj Gupta After contest a preliminary decree for partition was passed on 11th April, 1967. The property was held to be the joint property of the parties to the suit and each of them was declared to be the owner of one-third share therein. Smt. Lilawati Gupta lived separately in one-third portion of the house. Thereafter, in final decree proceedings an advocate was appointed as Commissioner for effecting partition of the property. The Commissioner made an interim report and his final report was awaited. During the pendency of the proceedings, Smt. Lilawati died on 22nd November, 1969.

(2.) Smt. Lilawati Gupta had executed a registered will on January 31, 1968, by which she bequeathed two-thirds of her share in the disputed property to her daughter, Smt. Vimla Lal, and the balance one-third to her daughter-in-law, Smt. Subhadra Devi, wife of Devraj Gupta. Steps were taken to bring her legal representatives on record in the aforesaid proceedings. The genuineness of the will was challenged by Hans Raj Gupta. Pending those proceedings, Smt. Subhadra Devi also died and her two sons, Premraj Gupta and Pradeep Kumar Gupta, were brought on record as her legal heirs. Ultimately a compromise was arrived at in these proceedings on December 15, 1970, and a decree was passed in the suit in accordance with that compromise. A copy of the compromise is annex. C and a copy of the decree is annex. D to the statement of the case.

(3.) In pursuance of the said compromise, " with a view to facilitate the partition by metes and bounds in two equal shares herein L. Hans Raj Gupta on the one hand and L. Devraj Gupta and his sons ", Smt. Vimla Lal relinquished and/or surrendered all her rights, title, interest, claim or share in No. 20, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, " in a manner that one-sixth share out of the aforesaid two-ninths share in the whole of the property is relinquished and/or surrendered wholly and absolutely in favour of Shri Hans Raj Gupta as the first party herein while the remaining 1/18th share in the whole of the property is relinquished and/or surrendered in favour of Shri Premraj Gupta and Pradeep Kumar Gupta jointly called the third party herein."