Hindu widow maintenance retains tax-exempt character when paid as a family right, even after coparcenary partition.
A Hindu widow's maintenance allowance retains its exempt character where it is received by virtue of her status and right as a member of a Hindu undivided family. A later partition among the coparceners does not extinguish that maintenance right, because she is not a party to the partition and the coparceners cannot, by dividing among themselves, defeat her entitlement. A deed securing payment by creating a charge on family property and personal liability merely makes the existing right definite; it does not convert maintenance into a taxable money allowance or substitute a new income source. The allowance therefore remains exempt under the income-tax exemption provision.
Issues: (i) Whether a Hindu widow receiving a maintenance allowance continued to receive it as a member of a Hindu undivided family notwithstanding the subsequent partition among the coparceners, so as to attract exemption under section 14(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. (ii) Whether the deed of agreement securing payment of the allowance changed its character from maintenance due as a family member into a taxable money allowance.
Issue (i): Whether a Hindu widow receiving a maintenance allowance continued to receive it as a member of a Hindu undivided family notwithstanding the subsequent partition among the coparceners, so as to attract exemption under section 14(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922.
Analysis: The statutory exemption applied where the assessee received the sum in the capacity of a member of a Hindu undivided family. A Hindu widow's right of maintenance against the surviving coparceners is a legal right arising from her status in the joint family. The partition among the male coparceners did not destroy her right, because she was not a party to the partition and the coparceners could not, by dividing among themselves, deprive her of the maintenance to which she was entitled.
Conclusion: The respondent continued to receive the allowance as a member of a Hindu undivided family and was entitled to exemption under section 14(1).
Issue (ii): Whether the deed of agreement securing payment of the allowance changed its character from maintenance due as a family member into a taxable money allowance.
Analysis: The deed was construed as a device to secure and make definite the existing maintenance right by creating a charge on the family property and personal liability on the male members. It did not amount to a surrender of the maintenance right or substitution of a taxable payment in its place. The allowance retained its original character as maintenance payable out of the family income.
Conclusion: The deed did not convert the allowance into taxable income, and the exemption remained available.
Final Conclusion: The maintenance received by the respondent was held to retain its character as a sum received as a member of a Hindu undivided family, and the appeal failed.
Ratio Decidendi: A Hindu widow's maintenance allowance remains exempt under section 14(1) if it is received by virtue of her status and right as a member of a Hindu undivided family, and a partition among coparceners or a deed merely securing that right does not alter its exempt character.
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