TMI Blog1974 (6) TMI 11X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 30th April, 1963, in the books of the said firm. Out of that amount, he made several gifts. We are not, in this case, concerned with the gifts made in favour of his sons and daughters. In addition to these gifts, he made a gift of Rs. 5,000 to his mother and claimed exemption under section 5(1)(vii) of the Gift-tax Act (hereinafter referred to as " the Act ") as it was made for the maintenance of his mother, who was dependent upon him. The Gift-tax Officer rejected the assessee's plea for exemption and subjected that amount to gift-tax. The assessee then preferred an appeal to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, who upheld the order of the Gift-tax Officer. On further appeal to the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, the Tribunal construed se ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to any relative, provided he is dependent upon him for support and maintenance. The occasion for making such a gift need not be the occasion of the marriage of a relative who depends upon the assessee for the support and maintenance. The case of the revenue is that there are two conditions to be satisfied : (1) The gift should be to a relative dependent upon the assessee for support and maintenance ; and (2) it should be on the occasion of the marriage of such a relative. The absence of the word " such " is also relied upon by Mr. Subrahmanyam to contend that, if it were the intention of the legislature that this provision could be availed of only at the time of the marriage of the relative, then the word " such " would have been prefix ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Corporation of Madras, it was however opined that punctuation furnished a clue for the interpretation of the provisions. Sundara Aiyar and Sadasiva Aiyar JJ., in Secretary of State v. Kalekhan, again considered the effect of punctuation on the statutes. They relied upon the consequence of a comma used in the language of the provision which they were construing. The learned judge, Sundara Aiyar, observed : " There is, no doubt, authority in English cases for this position but no Indian cases had been cited to us, and it may be permissible to express a doubt whether the consideration which induced judges in England to lay down such a rule would be equally applicable in the construction of statutes in this country. The question, however, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... id : " I prefer to avoid exegeses of the statutory language unless they are absolutely necessary : for the result would otherwise tend thereafter to substitute for the problem of construction of parliamentary language the problem of the construction of the judgments of the courts." (See Bewlay (Tobacconists) Ltd. v. British Bata Shoe Co. Ltd.). Rules of construction are only a guide. The words used have to be understood in their natural sense and meaning. As stated by Lord Goddard C.J. in Barnes v. Jarvis : " A certain amount of common sense must be applied in construing statutes. The object of the Act has to be considered." Therefore, if the words are precise and unambiguous, nothing more is necessary than to interpret those wo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ly be ignored ; but the provisions of a statute, when interpreted on the basis of punctuations, should not lead to, absurd results so as to defeat the very object of the statute. Commas or punctuation marks cannot control the meaning of the section. As observed by Sulaiman C.J., in Mansa v. Mt. Ancho, in construing a statute a court of law is bound to read without the commas inserted in the print. A Full Bench of five judges of the Lahore High Court in Gurmukh Singh v. Commissioner of Income-tax, dealing with the comma occurring in sub-section (3) of section 23 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, before the words " on specified points ", observed : " In the interpretation of statues punctuation, not being a part of the statute to be c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n cannot be spelt out from the language of the clause. A scrutiny of the language employed would make it abundantly clear that it is not enough if a relative is merely dependent upon the assessee for support and maintenance, for the assessee to avail of the benefit of this provision, but it could only be made on the occasion of the marriage of such a relative. The absence of the word " such " before the word " relative " makes absolutely no difference in so far as the meaning of the clause is concerned. We are, therefore, unable to agree with the Tribunal that the first part of clause (vii) " to any relative dependent upon him for support and maintenance " is distinct and separate part from the other part " on the occasion of the marriage o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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