TMI Blog1979 (12) TMI 15X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the assessments made on the assessee for the assessment years 1966-67 and 1968-69 to 1970-71.? " There was one A. K. Krishna Iyer, who had a prosperous business in running hotels. On 19th October, 1963, he executed a will creating a life estate in favour of his wife, Thirumathi M. P. Gnanambal, with regard to the properties now under consideration. The question which arose before the ITO was, whether on the occupation of the, properties by her sons free of rent, as contemplated by the will, she was liable to be assessed to income-tax on the usual value thereof. The contention of the assessee was that she could not be assessed and this contention was rejected by the ITO and he added a sum of Rs. 7,000 as income from these properties. O ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e earlier order dated January 17, 1972, he did not consider the contention elaborately in the present order, which was taken on appeal by the department. Section 22 of the I.T. Act, which relates to the assessment of income from house properties, reads thus: "The annual value of the property consisting of any buildings or lands appurtenant thereto of which the assessee is the owner ..... shall be chargeable to income-tax under the head income from house property. " Under this provision an assessee would have to pay tax on the annual value of the property, if he or she was the owner of the said property. We have, therefore, to consider the question whether the assessee, who is the wife of the testator, was the owner of the properties ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he relevant portion is the second passage in the vernacular language which has also been translated above. If the sons decided to live in any of the said properties or carry on their business then they were free to do so and Smt. M. P. Gnanambal Ammal had no right to collect any rent from them, she could not even take possession of the properties by evicting them, even if she needed the buildings for her own occupation. It is only when they voluntarily vacated the properties and surrendered possession, she was in position to recover possession of the properties and let them out to others and appropriate the rental income. The point for consideration is whether the right so conferred on Smt. M. P. Gnanambal Ammal could be equated to any owne ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se, the rights with reference to these properties can only be described as a delusion and a snare so long as the sons continued to occupy the property, which they were entitled to under the will. To describe her rights on the facts here as owner of the property is, in our opinion, a complete misnomer. The I.T. Act does not purport to tax a person who does not even have a vestige of a right in a property. As pointed out by the Supreme Court in R. B. Jodhamal Kuthiala v. CIT [1971] 82 ITR 570, 571 : " It is true that equitable considerations are irrelevant in interpreting tax laws. But, those laws, like all other laws, are to be interpreted reasonably and in consonance with justice. " In that case, the property remained vested in the Cust ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... described as the owner of the property for these years. We have seen that she had in fact no rights on the property. When the sons vacate the properties, different considerations would arise. We do not propose to consider any such question here as it does not arise here. The learned counsel for the Commissioner drew our attention to the following cases: Raja Mohammad Ahmad Khan v. Municipal Board of Sitapur [1965] AIR 1965 SC 1923, CIT v. Biman Behari Shaw Shebait [1968] 68 ITR 815 (Cal), CIT v. Union Land and Building Society Private Ltd. [1972] 83 ITR 794 (Bom) and S. B. (House Land) Pvt. Ltd. v. CIT [1979] 119 ITR 785 (Cal). As pointed out by the Calcutta High Court itself in the last mentioned decision, the question of ownership has ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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