Adopted son treated as a lineal descendant; estate duty treatment and residential house exemption followed earlier precedent.

For aggregation under the Estate Duty Act, an adopted son is a lineal descendant because adoption places the child in the adoptive line of descent with the incidents of sonship under Hindu law. The court also applied its earlier view that estate duty payable on the passing of the deceased's property is deductible in computing principal value, and resolved that question against the accountable person. On the residential house exemption, the court followed its prior ruling and held that the Hindu undivided family house was exempt to the extent applicable, despite the deceased holding only a one-half share.

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Issues: (i) Whether an adopted son is a lineal descendant within the meaning of section 34(1)(c) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953; (ii) Whether estate duty payable on the passing of the property of the deceased is deductible in ascertaining the principal value of the estate; (iii) Whether the entire residential house belonging to the Hindu undivided family, in which the deceased had only a one-half share, was exempt under section 33(1)(n) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953.

Issue (i): Whether an adopted son is a lineal descendant within the meaning of section 34(1)(c) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953.

Analysis: The expression "lineal descendant" was construed in its ordinary legal sense, informed by Hindu law on adoption. The adopted son, on adoption, enters the adoptive family as a son with the incidents of sonship, and the authorities and treatises relied upon showed that adoption places the child in the line of descent of the adoptive father. The statutory context did not justify limiting the phrase to an aurasa son only, and the court declined to confine the meaning by borrowing a restrictive notion from other statutory fictions.

Conclusion: The expression "lineal descendant" includes an adopted son. The answer was in the affirmative and against the accountable person.

Issue (ii): Whether estate duty payable on the passing of the property of the deceased is deductible in ascertaining the principal value of the estate.

Analysis: This question was governed by the earlier view of the court on the treatment of estate duty in computing the principal value of the estate. Following that binding approach, the court treated the issue as already settled against the accountable person.

Conclusion: The question was answered in the affirmative and against the accountable person.

Issue (iii): Whether the entire residential house belonging to the Hindu undivided family, in which the deceased had only a one-half share, was exempt under section 33(1)(n) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953.

Analysis: The question was covered by the court's earlier ruling on the residential house exemption, and the same approach was applied here. On that basis, the share and extent of exemption were resolved in favour of the accountable person.

Conclusion: The question was answered in favour of the accountable person.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by holding that an adopted son is a lineal descendant for aggregation purposes, while the estate-duty deduction question was decided against the accountable person and the residential-house exemption question in his favour.

Ratio Decidendi: For the purposes of section 34(1)(c) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953, an adopted son is a lineal descendant of the deceased because adoption places the child in the adoptive line of descent with the legal incidents of sonship under Hindu law.

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