Law:

Section:

Section 27(3), read with section 2(e), of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 - Reference - Question of fact - Assessee had personal right of residence in palace of her husband who was an ex-ruler - While computing net wealth of assessee for assessment year 1977-78, WTO included towards net wealth of assessee a sum representing her life interest in said palace - Whether Tribunal was justified in holding that personal right of residence did not constitute either an asset or net wealth and hence no question of law arose from Tribunal's order - Held, yes Section 2(e), read with section 2(m), of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 - Assets - Whether personal right of residence of widow of ex-ruler in palace is not an asset - Held, yes Facts The assessee was the widow of an ex-ruler. She enjoyed the right of residence in a palace which had been assessed as taxable wealth up to the assessment year 1975-76. The assessee's husband died on 21-5-1978. For the assessment year 1977-78, the WTO held that the assessee had life interest in the palace and included a sum of Rs. 55,300 in the net wealth of the assessee. The Commissioner (Appeals) held the assessee had merely a personal right of residence which did not constitute either an 'asset' under section 2(e) or 'net wealth' under section 2(m). The Tribunal agreed with the Commissioner (Appeals) and refused to refer the case to the High Court. On application by the revenue under section 27(3): Held It is no doubt true that 'property' is a term of the widest import and signifies every possible interest which a person can clearly hold and enjoy. But in the present case, it could not be said that the right of personal residence which had been given to the assessee during her lifetime was covered by the definition of 'actionable claim' and consequently, an asset, on the basis of which it could be said that it could fetch any price if sold in the open market as mentioned in section 7(1) or that she could legally part with her personal right of residence for any consideration to a third person. The revenue was unable to show that the assessee, in the present case, could part with the right of personal residence during her lifetime. No buyer could…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492