TMI Blog1976 (4) TMI 3X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ition took place between him, his brothers and his father. As a result of this partition, a block of shares in T. V. Sundaram Iyengar and Sons P. Ltd. and three other limited companies fell to his share. On June 14, 1956, Sridharan married Rosa Maria Steinbchler, a Christian woman of Austrian descent, under the Special Marriage Act, 1954. On November 29, 1957, a son named Nicolas Sundaram was born out of this wedlock. For the assessment years 1957-58 and 1958-59 Sridharan was assessed to income-tax, and wealth-tax in the status of an " individual " on his own declaration to that effect. In the assessment proceedings in respect of income-tax and wealth-tax for the assessment years 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1961-62 and in the assessment proceedings under the Expenditure-tax Act for the year 1961-62, he claimed to be assessed in the status of a member of a Hindu undivided family consisting of himself and his son, Nicolas Sundaram, contending that the property, held by him was ancestral and Nicolas Sundaram was a Hindu. The Income-tax Officer, Wealth-tax Officer and Expenditure-tax Officer refused to accede to the contention of Sridharan and assessed him in the status of an " individual as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o this court. Sridharan died on April 9, 1962. A few days after the valuation date relevant for the assessment year 1963-64, his widow, Mrs. Rosa Maria Steinbchler, filed a wealth-tax return claiming that the assessment for the assessment year 1962-63 should be made in the status of Hindu undivided family. The Wealth-tax Officer, following his earlier decision in the assessment proceedings in respect of the previous years, rejected the claim of Rosa Maria Steinbchler holding that she was not a Hindu and in any case since her marriage with Sridharan was under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, Nicolas Sundaram had no right by birth in the properties obtained by the assessee on partition. He further held that Nicolas Sundaram could claim Sridharan's property only under the Indian Succession Act, 1925, and not under the Hindu law. On appeal, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner affirmed the order of the Wealth-tax Officer. A further appeal was preferred to the Appellate Tribunal but that too proved abortive. The Tribunal, however, referred the following question of law for the opinion of the High Court : " Whether the assessee, Sridharan, and his son constituted in law a Hindu undi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g " the civilization of Hindus (originally, the inhabitants of the land of the Indus River). It properly denotes the Indian civilization of approximately the last 2,000 years, which gradually evolved from Vedism, the religion of the ancient Indo-European peoples who settled in India in the last centuries of the 2nd millenium B. C. Besides it integrates a large variety of heterogeneous elements, Hinduism constitutes a very complex but largely continuous whole, and since it covers the whole of life it has religious, social, economic, literary, and artistic aspects. As a religion, Hinduism is an utterly diverse conglomerate of doctrines, cults, and way of life............ In principle, Hinduism incorporates all forms of belief and worship without necessitating the selection or elimination of any. The Hindu is inclined to revere the divine in every manifestation, whatever it may be, and is doctrinally tolerant, leaving others--including both Hindus and non-Hindus--whatever creed and worship practices suit them best. A Hindu may embrace a non-Hindu religion without ceasing to be a Hindu, and since the Hindu is disposed to think synthetically and to regard other forms of worship, strange ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ts and even to those who have entirely repudiated Brahmanism. It has been applied to various religious sects and bodies which at various periods and in circumstances developed out of, or split off from, the Hindu system but whose members have nevertheless continued to live under the Hindu law and the Courts have generally put a liberal construction upon enactments relating to the personal laws applicable to Hindus......... In paragraph 6 of Chapter I of Mulla's aforesaid treatise, the following have been enumerated as persons to whom Hindu law applies : " (i) not only to Hindus by birth, but also to Hindus by religion, i.e., converts to Hinduism ; (ii) to illegitimate children where both parents are Hindus ; (iii) to illegitimate children where the father is a Christian and the mother is a Hindu, and the children are brought up as Hindus. But the Hindu law of coparcenary, which contemplates the father as the head of the family and the sons as coparceners by birth with rights of survivorship, cannot form the very nature of the case apply to such children. (iv) to Jains, Buddhists in India, Sikhs and Nambudiri Brahmins except so far as such law is varied by custom and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... indu. In the present case, Sridharan is a Hindu by birth and was lawfully married to Rosa Maria Steinbchler. Even after his marriage, he did not renounce Hinduism but continued to profess that religion. Having been begotten out of the aforesaid valid and lawful wedlock, Nicolas Sundaram is a legitimate child and lineal descendant of Sridharan. There is no material on the record to show that Nicolas Sundaram was not brought up as a Hindu or that he did not conform to the habits and usages of Hinduism or that he was not recognised as a Hindu by the society surrounding him or that he became a convert to another faith. Sridharan has also unequivocally acknowledged and expressly declared that he and his son, Nicolas Sundaram, formed a Hindu undivided family. This declaration in the circumstances is sufficient, as also found by the High Court, to establish that Nicolas Sundaram was brought up as a Hindu member of the family to which his father belonged. At page 290 of his treatise on Hindu Law and Usage (eleventh edition), Mayne says that a child in India, under ordinary circumstances, must be presumed to have his father's religion, and his corresponding civil and social status. We, t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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