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TMI Blog1967 (8) TMI 36X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iod in question, the wife and the two minors incurred certain expenditure out of the property allotted to them ; the assessee himself did not incur any expenditure for or on their behalf. The said expenditure was taken to be the expenditure assessable in the hands of the assessee by the departmental authorities and the Tribunal upheld that decision. The Tribunal has, construing section 4(ii) and section 2(g)(i) of the Act, held that expenditure of the wife and minors incurred from whatever source is taxable in the hands of the assessee. Before stating the contentions advanced by learned counsel for the parties, it is necessary to refer to the material provisions of the Act. Section 2(c) of the Act defines " assessee " as meaning " an individual or a Hindu undivided family by whom expenditure or any other sum of money is payable . . . . ". The definition of " dependant " as given by section 2(g), as amended by Act No. 12 of 1959, is thus: " ' dependant' means- (i) where the assessee is an individual, his or her spouse or minor child, and includes any person wholly or mainly dependent on the assessee for support and maintenance; (ii) where the assessee is a Hindu undivided family ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... all be included in computing the expenditure of an assessee liable to tax under this Act, namely:- (i) any expenditure incurred, whether directly or indirectly by any person other than the assessee in respect of any obligation or personal requirement of the assessee or any of his dependants which, but for the expenditure having been incurred by that other person, would have been incurred by the assessee, to the extent to which the amount of all such expenditure in the aggregate exceeds Rs.5,000 in any year; (ii) any expenditure incurred by any dependant of the assessee for the benefit of the assessee or of any of his dependants out of any gift, donation or settlement on trust or out of any other source made or created by the assessee, whether directly or indirectly. Explanation.-For the removal of doubts it is hereby declared that nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to require the inclusion in the expenditure of the assessee of any expenditure incurred by any other person for or on behalf of the assessee by way of customary hospitality or which is of a trivial or inconsequential nature. " Before the Tribunal it was urged on behalf of the assessee that the nexus fo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e, learned counsel for the assessee, that under the Expenditure-tax Act an " individual " is an assessee ; both the spouses can, therefore, be made assessees and in assessment proceedings initiated against them the expenditure of the one may lawfully be included in the expenditure of the other and thus the same expenditure will be included twice for assessment if the interpretation put by the Tribunal were to be accepted as correct. Learned counsel pointed out that the legislature left the definition of " assessee " unchanged and even the charging section (section 3) only referred to an individual as a unit and not the individual together with his or her spouse and minor children as a unit. It was, therefore, submitted that the contention advanced on behalf of the revenue that the amendments made in 1959 were for the purpose of making the assessee together with his or her spouse and minor child as the unit for assessment of tax could not be accepted and the interpretation put by the Tribunal on section 2(g)(i) was not warranted. Learned counsel further urged that, as is obvious from the second part of the clause (ii) of section 4, that expenditure incurred by the dependants is to b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or minor child not really dependent on the assessee falls within the definition of " dependant " as given in section 2(g)(i), the Tribunal has attached much weight to the fact that after the words "minor child" there is a comma and then follows the expression "and includes any person wholly or mainly dependant on the assessee for support and maintenance". The Tribunal thought that this comma indicated that the words "wholly or mainly dependent on the assessee for support and maintenance" did not in any way relate to the words "his or her spouse or minor child". Now, it is well-settled that punctuation is not part of the statute and cannot, therefore, be regarded as a determining factor in construing the statute. This proposition has been laid down by the Privy Council in Maharani of Burdwan v. Krishna Kamini Dasi. Following this decision of the Privy Council it has been held by man by High Courts that punctuation not being a part of the statute to be construed is not a determining factor and the courts should not take them into consideration in interpreting statutes (see Edward Caston v. L. H. Caston, Niaz Ahmed Khan v. Parsottam Chandra, Mani Lall Sing v. Trustees for the Improve ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s that where the assessee is an individual or a Hindu undivided family, any expenditure incurred from or out of any income or property transferred directly or indirectly to the dependant by the assessee shall be included in computing the expenditure of the assessee liable to tax. The expression "any expenditure incurred by any dependant from or out of any income or property transferred directly or indirectly to the dependant by the assessee " occurring in section 4(ii) applied not only when the assessee is a Hindu undivided family but also when the assessee is an individual. It is noteworthy that section 4(ii) concludes with the words " by the assessee " and not with the words " Hindu undivided family ". If it was intended that, where the assessee is an individual, any expenditure incurred by the dependant of the assessee, no matter whether from or out of any income or property transferred to the dependant by the individual assessee or from or out of the dependant's own independent income or property, should be included in computing the expenditure of the individual assessee and that in the case of a Hindu undivided family only the expenditure incurred by the dependant from or out ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r for the year 1959-60 as also the statement of objects and reasons attached to the Finance Bill, it was held that the object of the amendments referred to earlier made in the Act was to make the individual together with his or her spouse and the minor child a unit of assessment and further that there was good reason for making a distinction between an individual and a Hindu undivided family for the purpose of section 4(ii) of the Act. It is well settled that the statement of objects and reasons attached to a Bill is to be excluded while construing the terms of a statute and that the speeches made by members of Parliament are not admissible as extrinsic aids to the interpretation of statutory provisions (see Express Newspapers (P.) Ltd. v. Union of India and Aswini Kumar Ghosh v. Arabinda Bose ). In State of West Bengal v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has said that a statute as passed by Parliament is the expression of the collective intention of the Legislature as a whole and any statement made by a member albeit a Minister of the intention and objects of the Act cannot be used to cut down the generality of the words used in the statute. In the Andhra Pradesh case the learned ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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