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1976 (7) TMI 61 - SUPREME COURTWhether the dispositive fact of giving up by a coparcener of a good part of what is due to him at the time of division to his own detriment and to the benefit of another coparcener, can be called "disposition" in law? Held that:- Section 9, dealing with gifts, takes in property under a disposition made by a deceased, throwing up the question "what is a gift" ? Section 27 supplies the answer: "any disposition made by the deceased in favour of a relative of his shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as a gift ", unless, of course, it is made for full consideration. There is no limitation, environmental or by the society of words, warranting the whittling down of the unusually wide range of Explanation 2 to section 2(15). What the provision declares is that if the disposition made by the deceased is more than two years before death, the property covered thereby shall not pass on the death unless it shall not have been bona fide. That is to say, even if the transaction were more than two years before the death, if it were entered into in bad faith, estate duty may still attach to that property. So far as dispositions made within two years of the death of the deceased are concerned, there is no question of mala fides or bona fides. All such transactions are caught within the coils of section 5 read with sections 9 and 27. The requirement of "bona fides" has nothing to do with dispositions within 2 years and has much to do with those beyond 2 years. The marginal obscurity in section 9 is due perhaps to compressed draftsmanship.
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