Partition allotment for daughters' maintenance rights is not a gratuitous transfer, so related agricultural income stays excluded.

Allotment of ancestral property to minor unmarried daughters under a partition deed was treated as a lawful adjustment of their maintenance and marriage rights, not a gratuitous transfer. The Kerala HC noted that such rights are enforceable under Hindu law and may be satisfied by granting shares in partition free from encumbrance; the assets then become the daughters' absolute property under section 14(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. On that basis, section 9(2)(a)(iv) of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 did not apply, and the income from the allotted assets was not includible in the assessee's agricultural income.

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Issues: Whether allotment of ancestral properties to minor unmarried daughters under a partition deed could be treated as a transfer otherwise than for adequate consideration so as to attract section 9(2)(a)(iv) of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 and require inclusion of the income from those assets in the assessee's total agricultural income.

Analysis: The female members of a Hindu undivided family, though not coparceners, have enforceable rights to maintenance and marriage expenses, and those rights create a charge on the ancestral properties. At partition, such rights may be satisfied by allotment of shares, free from encumbrance, in lieu of maintenance and related expenses. The allotment under the partition deed was therefore not a gratuitous transfer but a settlement of rights recognised by Hindu law. The assets allotted to the minor daughters became their absolute property under section 14(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, and there was no basis to say that the value allotted exceeded what was legally payable towards their rights.

Conclusion: Section 9(2)(a)(iv) of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 did not apply, and the income from the assets allotted to the minor daughters was not includible in the assessee's agricultural income; the answer was in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered only on the transfer-and-inclusion issue, and the Revenue's contention failed because the partition deed was treated as a lawful adjustment of female members' rights rather than a taxable transfer.

Ratio Decidendi: Where ancestral property is allotted at partition to satisfy the maintenance and allied rights of female members of a Hindu family, the allotment is for adequate consideration and is not a transfer attracting inclusion of income under the transfer-to-minor-child provision.

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