Dower debt transfer of immovable property requires registration and does not bar fresh tax examination in later years.

A Muslim husband's oral transfer of immovable property to his wife in discharge of dower debt is treated as hiba-bil-iwaz in India and, in substance, as a sale, not a pure gift. Because immovable property valued above one hundred rupees can pass only by a registered instrument, such a transfer is ineffective without registration, and the house income remains assessable in the husband's hands. In income-tax matters, each assessment year is a separate unit; an earlier reference for another year does not ordinarily create res judicata or estoppel for the later assessment unless the issue was finally determined.

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Issues: (i) Whether an oral transfer of immovable property by a Muslim husband to his wife in lieu of dower debt was a valid gift or a sale requiring a registered instrument, and whether the income from the house remained assessable in the husband's hands; (ii) Whether the earlier reference relating to an earlier assessment year operated as res judicata or estoppel in the present assessment.

Issue (i): Whether an oral transfer of immovable property by a Muslim husband to his wife in lieu of dower debt was a valid gift or a sale requiring a registered instrument, and whether the income from the house remained assessable in the husband's hands

Analysis: A simple hiba is a gift without consideration and is complete on declaration, acceptance, and delivery of possession. A transfer made in lieu of dower debt is not a pure gift, but a transaction in consideration of the debt. Such a transaction is treated as hiba-bil-iwaz in India and is in substance a sale. A sale of immovable property valued above one hundred rupees can be effected only by a registered instrument. On the facts found, the house was transferred in discharge of dower debt and no valid registered conveyance existed.

Conclusion: The transfer was not a valid oral gift, but a sale requiring registration, and the income from the house was taxable as the assessee's income.

Issue (ii): Whether the earlier reference relating to an earlier assessment year operated as res judicata or estoppel in the present assessment

Analysis: In tax matters, each assessment year constitutes a separate unit. A decision for one year does not ordinarily operate as res judicata for another year, particularly where the legal character of the transaction was not finally determined as an issue in the earlier proceeding. The earlier reference therefore did not bar examination of the true nature of the transfer in the present assessment.

Conclusion: The earlier decision did not operate as res judicata or estoppel against the Revenue.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered in favour of the Revenue, holding that the house income was assessable in the assessee's hands and that the earlier year's decision did not bind the present assessment.

Ratio Decidendi: A transfer by a Muslim husband to his wife in discharge of dower debt is, in law, a sale and not a pure gift, so immovable property worth more than one hundred rupees cannot pass without a registered instrument; in income-tax proceedings, a finding for one assessment year does not operate as res judicata for a subsequent year.

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