TEJA SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has filed this writ petition challenging the orders of respondent No. 3 and the Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax, Jalandhar Range, Jalandhar, as confirmed by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, vide annexures P-2 to P 5.

(2.) THE facts leading to the filing of the present writ petition are as follows : The father of the petitioner, Kapur Singh, died on December 30, 1968, leaving behind three sons Dalip Singh, Mohan Singh and the petitioner, Teja Singh. The authorities under the Estate Duty Act issued notice to Dalip Singh and Mohan Singh under Section 59 of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"), on February 25/27, 1973, calling upon them to submit an account of the property left by the deceased as required under Section 53 of the said Act. Accordingly, Dalip Singh and Mohan Singh filed the return. On the basis of the said return, the assessment proceedings were finalised on August 2, 1974. Against the said assessment, Dalip Singh and Mohan Singh filed an appeal before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, Jalandhar, who by his order dated March 19, 1975, set aside the assessment on the ground that there was failure of giving a reasonable opportunity of hearing and remanded the matter to the Assistant Controller of Estate Duty, Jalandhar, for fresh assessment. After remand, the Assistant Controller of Estate Duty, Jalandhar, passed his order on June 21, 1976, assessing the value of the property at Rs. 3,83,425 and levied estate duty of Rs. 43,808. Against the said orders, Dalip Singh and Mohan Singh filed another appeal before the Appellate Controller of the Estate Duty, Jalandhar, who reduced the net value assessed and determined it at Rs. 3,15,075. Further appeal before the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal by both the brothers, Dalip Singh and Mohan Singh was unsuccessful. Both the brothers filed an application for referring the matter to the High Court. The said application was rejected by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal by its order dated December 31, 1980. Thereafter, a notice was issued for recovering the estate duty to Dalip Singh and Mohan Singh in October 1980. According to the petitioner, his brothers, Dalip Singh, demanded from the petitioner in the month of February 1981,

(3.) THE first contention of learned counsel is that the property belonged to the Hindu undivided family and, therefore, his father, Kapur Singh, the deceased had only a 1/4th share in the property. This plea was taken by his brothers, Dalip Singh and Mohan Singh before the authorities under the Act. The record shows that ample opportunity was given to both the brothers to produce evidence that the property belonged to the Hindu undivided family and that their father had only a 1/4th share in the said property but both of them failed to produce any evidence to show that the property belonged to the Hindu undivided family. Therefore, the authorities under the Act concluded that it was the separate property of Kapur Singh which devolved on his death upon his sons and, therefore, the entire property was liable to estate duty. Even in this writ petition, the petitioner has not filed any evidence to show that the property owned by Kapur Singh was allotted to him by the Government in lieu of the property left by Kapur Singh in Pakistan while leaving Pakistan after partition of the country. Therefore, the contention of learned counsel that the property belonged to the Hindu undivided family cannot be accepted for lack of evidence.