TMI Blog1982 (9) TMI 5X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd a minor daughter aged 17. The deceased's widow filed an estate duty account with the Assistant Controller of Estate Duty. She claimed, inter alia, a deduction for Rs. 72,000 as provision for the marriage of the daughter. The Asst. Controller, however, negatived this claim. He took the view that the obligation to get the daughter married was a personal obligation of the deceased and was not a charge on the estate. The Appellate Controller and the Appellate Tribunal, however, took a different view. They held that under the Hindu law an obligation of this sort is enforceable against the ancestral property which the deceased died possessed of. They, however, limited the allowance in this case to Rs. 50,000 as representing a reasonable prov ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... penditure-tax [1974] 93 ITR 146 (Mad). The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, provides, inter alia, for the obligation of a Hindu father to perform, and spend for, the marriage of his unmarried daughter. The liability, however, is not declared by the Act to be an automatic charge on the father's property in every case. The relevant provision in s. 27 of the Act lays down that the liability can be enforced against the father's estate after his death only if a specific charge in that regard has been created either under his will, or under an agreement binding on him, or under a court decree. These statutory provisions, however, do not affect the daughter's independent right under her personal law to render ancestral property liable ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... For the accountable person it is urged that it ill-becomes the Department to treat the settlement of the property as a discharge of the deceased's obligation towards the daughter's marriage when the Department had set at nought the settlement by imposing estate duty even on the settled property as property deemed to pass under s. 9 of the Act. The Department, it was said, cannot have it both ways. This contention of the accountable person can be rested only on some broad equitable considerations. Equity and estate duty, however, are strangers That s. 9 imposes an extra burden on the dutiable estate can be no reason for claiming a countervailing allowance to neutralize its effect otherwise. The E.D. Act carries a number of similar deeming ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a handle to claim a deduction for the self-same figure of Rs. 72,000 or even any lesser figure as a reasonable estimate of the marriage provision for the unmarried daughter. The truth of the matter is that the claim for deduction can succeed only on its own quality of eligibility, not otherwise. On the last aspect of deductibility, we have earlier referred to the legal position which obtains in cases of this kind, namely, that where the deceased is a Hindu, a reasonable provision for the marriage of an unmarried daughter in the family must be allowed either as a debt or as an encumbrance if the dutiable estate includes ancestral or coparcenary property to the extent that it can take in, or absorb, that liability. In this case, it is commo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cumstances, and in each case the deduction of a debt or encumbrance is made subject to the limitations provided thereunder. It follows, therefore, that where a debt or an encumbrance does not fall within any of these exceptional clauses, such a debt or encumbrance is per se deductible. In our judgment, the liability of ancestral or coparcenary property of a Hindu to pay for the marriage expenses of unmarried daughters in the family would be a proper debt or encumbrance deductible under the general provisions of s. 44 where the deceased dies possessed of such property. This liability does not fall under any of the special categories covered by cls. (a) to (d) of s. 44, and is not subject to the limitations found therein. The only condition f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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