TMI Blog1976 (4) TMI 112X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ceived from the Income-tax Officer assessing the trust that the beneficiary was not an ascertained person, since the minor son of the assessee was not married at the time of creation of the trust, and hence the trust created by the assessee is invalid. On the basis of this information, the original assessments made on the assessee reopened under s. 147 (b) and the proportionate share income of the assessee that accrued to the alleged trust was assessed in the hands of the assessee. 3. On appeal, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner held:- (1) Since the Income-tax Officer, who has made the gift-tax assessment in respect of the gift made by the assessee to the trust, must have gone into the validity of the trust the reopening of the asses ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... trust that there is no validly constituted trust and on the basis of this information received subsequent to the making of the original assessments, the Income-tax Officer reopened the assessments under s.147(b) and hence the reopening of the assessments by the Income-tax Officer is valid and has to be sustained. 7. From the notings on the file relating to the original assessment for 1970-71, it is seen that the trust deed was not produced before the Income-tax Officer at the time of making the original assessment. It is, therefore, obvious that the original assessment for 1970-71 was completed by the Income tax Officer even without examining the trust deed and the Income-tax Officer would have, therefore, no occasion to consider the val ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent the income liable to tax the escaped assessment due to oversight, inadvertence or a mistake committed by the Income-tax Officer. (3) Where the information is derived from an external source of any kind : such external source would include discovery of new and important matters or knowledge of fresh facts which were not present at the time of original assessment. (4) Where the information obtained may be even from the record of the original assessment from an investigation of the materials on record or facts disclosed thereby or from other enquiry or research into facts or law. 9. In the present case, the Income-tax Officer at the time of making the original assessment due to oversight or inadvertence has omitted to consider the qu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ust and accumulations thereof together with the accretions thereto shall be held and administered for the benefit of the beneficiary. Clauses 4 and 6 of the trust deed provide that the income form the trust property, after meeting all the expenses, shall be added to and form part of the trust property, and the trustees shall hand over the trust property to the beneficiary absolutely within one year from the date of marriage of the assessee s son Dileep Kumar. 11. The contention of the Revenue is that since minor son of the assessee attaining majority and marrying are events which cannot be predicted with any certainty, the beneficiary is indeterminate and uncertain and hence there is no valid trust. 12. In order to constitute a valid tr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pective wife of the assessee s minor son is also permissible, if the rule against perpetuities is not violated. A bequest distributable among descendants of the testator to be ascertained 20 years after the death of the last survivor of all the lineal descendants of Queen Victoria living at the testator s death was held to be valid (vide Re Villar, 1928 Ch. 471). It, therefore, follows that a trust in favour of beneficiaries not in existence but ascertainable within the period of perpetuities would be valid. The rule against perpetuities is that no transfer of property can operate to create an interest which is to take effect after the life time of one or more persons living at the date of such transfer (vide s.14 of the Transfer of Propert ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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