1982 (5) TMI 103

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..... e was not eligible for the said deduction. On appeal the AAC followed his own order for the earlier assessment year 1976-1977, in which he had held that according to section 80C(2)(b)(ii), when a minor became a major he should adopt the policy in his name and the premia should also be paid by him and that in the assessee's case this was not so. He had further observed that the minors on whose lives the policies were taken had become majors and they were income-tax assessees. 3. Before me the learned representative for the assessee submitted that for all the earlier years up to and inclusive of the assessment year 1975-76 similar claims for deduction of life insurance premia on the lives of the minor children of the assessee were allowed an .....

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..... e or on the life of the wife or husband or (any child) of the assessee; or" On a plain reading of the above provision the assessee is entitled to succeed. In the order of the AAC, he had stated that even for the earlier assessment year 1976-77, the minor children had become majors. Therefore, for the assessment year under appeal, viz., 1977-78, the question of the assessee paying insurance premia on the life of any minor child does not arise. When the assessee had admittedly paid the insurance premia on the lives of her children, the provisions of section 80C(2)(a)(i) squarely applies. I am, therefore, of the opinion that the authorities below have erred in negativing relief to the assessee. I may also refer to the following passage occurr .....

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..... wn to section 64(1)(iii) of the Act, in which the word "minor" has been put before the word "child" whereas no such qualification is mentioned in regard to the child referred to in section 80C(2)(a)(i). Under the Explanation (ii) to section 80C(2) an assessee is entitled to claim rebate on the premia paid on a Children's Endowment Assurance Policy during the child's minority, which was the position prevailing under the corresponding section 15(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. From the assessment year 1970-71 onwards, however, such benefit was also allowable to the father in his assessment. This position is clarified at page 1190 of the same book by Chaturvedi and Pithisaria as under: "Children's Deferred Endowment Assurance Policy--- .....

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