Estate duty exclusion turns on donee's exclusive enjoyment; donor's partnership rights alone do not trigger section 10.

Section 10 of the Estate Duty Act applies only where the donee bona fide assumes possession and enjoyment of the gifted property and retains it to the entire exclusion of the donor, with any donor benefit traceable to the gift itself. Independent rights of the donor as a partner do not by themselves attract the provision unless the donor's continued benefit is referable to the gift. On the stated facts, the gifts were complete, the grandchildren received the amounts, and the later deposits in the partnership firm did not create a benefit in favour of the donor referable to the gifts; the amounts were therefore not includible in the deceased's estate.

---

---

Issues: Whether section 10 of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 applied to the sums gifted by the deceased to his grandchildren and later deposited in the partnership firm in which the deceased had been a partner.

Analysis: The governing test under section 10 is whether the donee bona fide assumed possession and enjoyment of the gifted property and retained it to the entire exclusion of the donor, and whether any benefit enjoyed by the donor is referable to the gift itself. The earlier decisions show that a donor's independent rights as a partner do not by themselves attract section 10 unless the donor's continued benefit is traceable to the gift. On the facts, the gifts were complete, the donees received the amounts, and the later deposits in the firm did not create any benefit in favour of the donor that was referable to the gifts. The donor's position as a partner did not amount to continued possession or enjoyment of the gifted money within the meaning of the provision.

Conclusion: Section 10 did not apply, and the gifted amounts were not includible in the estate of the deceased.

---