Marriage-related gifts under Hindu maintenance law may fall outside gift-tax when reasonable and directly connected to the ceremony.

Under section 20 read with section 3(b)(ii) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, a Hindu father's maintenance obligation to an unmarried daughter extends to reasonable expenses incidental to her marriage. Gold ornaments given for use at the marriage may fall within that obligation where the transfer is directly connected with the marriage and reasonable on the facts, rather than an ordinary taxable gift. On the stated facts, the transfer of 51 sovereigns at the time of marriage was treated as a reasonable marriage expense and was not subject to gift-tax.

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Issues: Whether gold ornaments given by a father to his unmarried daughter at the time of her marriage could be treated as reasonable expenses of and incidental to her marriage under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, so as to fall outside gift-tax liability.

Analysis: Under section 20 read with section 3(b)(ii) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, a Hindu father's maintenance obligation in relation to an unmarried daughter extends to reasonable expenses of and incidental to her marriage. The expression is broad enough to include, to a reasonable extent, gold ornaments given for use at the marriage when the facts show that the transfer is directly connected with the marriage and is not an ordinary taxable gift. The reasonableness of such expenditure is a matter to be decided on the facts of each case.

Conclusion: The transfer of 51 sovereigns to the daughter at the time of her marriage was a reasonable expense incidental to the marriage and was not exigible to gift-tax.

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