Estate duty exemption for a Hindu joint family home applies to the full residential house before notional partition and aggregation.

For estate duty on a deceased coparcener's interest in Hindu joint family property, section 33(1)(n) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 was applied to the entire residential house used by the deceased, up to the statutory limit, before any notional partition under section 39 was made. The statutory fiction in section 39(3) requires the joint family property to be treated as belonging to the deceased for valuation, but it does not displace the prior exemption of the residential house. Once the house is fully excluded within the permitted limit, it cannot be brought back into the deceased's share or aggregated with lineal descendants' shares under section 34(1)(c).

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Issues: Whether, in computing estate duty on a deceased coparcener's share in Hindu joint family property, the exemption under section 33(1)(n) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953, applies to the entire residential house or only to the deceased's share, and whether the lineal descendants' shares in that house can be aggregated under section 34(1)(c).

Analysis: The provisions governing levy and valuation of coparcenary interests require the joint family property to be treated, by the fiction in section 39(3), as if it belonged to the deceased, so that the Act's provisions on inclusion and exclusion operate on the whole property. Section 33(1)(n) exempts one residential house or part thereof used by the deceased for residence up to the prescribed limit, and that exemption must be applied before the notional partition is worked out under section 39. Once the residential house is wholly excluded within the statutory limit, it cannot again be brought into the computation for the deceased's share or for aggregation of the lineal descendants' shares under section 34(1)(c).

Conclusion: The exemption under section 33(1)(n) extends to the entire residential house within the statutory limit, and the lineal descendants' shares in that house are not to be aggregated under section 34(1)(c) for this purpose.

Ratio Decidendi: The statutory fiction in section 39(3) must be given full effect, and when read with section 33(1)(n), the residential house of a Hindu joint family is to be treated as exempt in full up to the prescribed limit before the deceased's notional share is worked out.

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