DALICHAND TEJRAJ Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AT the instance of the assessee the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi Bench "A" (herinafter referred to as "the Tribunal"), has referred this case to us for answering the following question of law, namely :

(2.) FOR answering the aforesaid question the following facts might be recalled. M/s. Dalichand Tejraj, Pali, is a Hindu undivided family owning a business and certain immovable properties and other assets, whom we shall hereinafter call as "the assessee". Three appeals relating to the assessment years 1959-60,1960-61 and 1961-62, were preferred by the assessee before the Tribunal. The facts with which the Tribunal was concerned were that in January, 1941, Dalichand, the karta of the assessee Hindu undivided family, who was issueless, had adopted Tejraj, by virtue of a deed of adoption dated January 4, 1941. Some time in January, 1947, Dalichand died and Tejraj became the karta of the assessee Hindu undivided family. On October 23, 1957, a sum of Rs. 45,000 was shown as having been given to Smt. Gatkoo Bai, the widow of Dalichand, and an entry in the book was made as under:

(3.) SO far as the question of a gift is concerned, it was never submitted by the assessee before the Income-tax Officer that the transaction relating to the transfer of the aforesaid sum to Smt. Gatkoo Bai was by way of gift. Moreover, Tejraj as a karta of the joint Hindu family had a very limited right of making a gift of ancestral family property. A managing member of a Hindu undivided family, who is not the father, has power to make a gift within reasonable limits only for "pious purposes". No case of gift has been made out in the present case. We agree with the finding recorded by the Appellate Tribunal.