CONTROLLER OF ESTATE DUTY Vs. SOM CHAND KATIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE questions of law which have been referred by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Amritsar Bench, Amritsar, to this court under Section 64 of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), read as under :

(2.) DEWAN Chand Katia was a coparcener in the joint Hindu family, known as DEWAN Chand Som Chand. By a partition deed dated April 2, 1964, business capital of Rs. 1,13,605.72 was partitioned amongst DEWAN Chand Katia, his wife and two sons. The two sons of Sh. DEWAN Chand Katia, namely, Lal Chand and Vijay Kumar, had separated from the joint Hindu family. Therefore, Sh. DEWAN Chand Katia claimed that the joint Hindu family consisted of himself and his wife, Smt. Saraswati Devi. This stand of DEWAN Chand was accepted by the Revenue and for a number of years it was assessed like that under the Income-tax as well as Wealth-tax Acts. After the death of DEWAN Chand on April 6, 1979, the accountable person claimed that Rs. 2,11,908 which represented half of the joint Hindu family property was in the share of Smt. Saraswati Devi and, therefore, there was no justification for aggregating this amount in the estate of the late DEWAN Chand. The Assistant Controller of Estate Duty did not agree with the accountable person. He held that the total property amounting to Rs. 4,38,517 belonged to the joint Hindu family till the death of Sh. DEWAN Chand and there has been no partition between them and Sh. DEWAN Chand should be considered as the sole and absolute owner of the property. On that premise, he aggregated the entire amount of Rs. 4,38,517 in the estate of DEWAN Chand, The appeal filed by the accountable person was dismissed by the Appellate Controller of Estate Duty. However, the Appellate Tribunal did not agree with the Assistant Controller of Estate Duty and the appellate authority. The Tribunal held that the Assistant Controller as well as the appellate authority have erred in treating the entire property as belonging to the Hindu joint family consisting of the late Shri DEWAN Chand, his wife and two sons. The Tribunal further held that the property jointly belonged to the late Shri DEWAN Chand and his wife, Smt. Saraswati Devi, who were allotted Rs. 56,802.86 in the partition which took place in the year 1964 and, therefore, the entire property could not be taken into consideration for aggregating it in the estate of the late Shri DEWAN Chand, On the basis of this conclusion, the Tribunal reversed the findings of the Assistant Controller and the appellate authority.