Sole surviving coparcener may validly gift partitioned property, and the gifted asset is excluded from net wealth.

A sole surviving coparcener, after the presumed death of a missing son and an earlier partition, was treated as entitled to deal with the family property as his own for purposes of alienation. Applying the rule that a person not heard of for seven years may be presumed dead, the assessee remained the only surviving coparcener in relation to the partitioned property and could validly gift it. The property received on partition was therefore disposable by gift on the facts, and the gifted asset was excluded from the assessee's net wealth. The principle applied was that partitioned property may be alienated absolutely by the recipient when no other coparcener survives.

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Issues: Whether the assessee, as the sole surviving coparcener after the presumed death of his missing son and the earlier partition, had the power to make a valid gift of the property received on partition, and whether the value of the gifted property was includible in the assessee's net wealth.

Analysis: A person not heard of for seven years by those who would naturally have heard of him if alive is presumed dead. On that footing, the missing son was treated as no longer alive, and after the 1967 partition the assessee remained the sole surviving coparcener in respect of the family property. A sole surviving coparcener is entitled to deal with coparcenary property as if it were his separate property and may validly gift it. The property received on partition, though capable of being impressed with HUF character if later circumstances arise, was, in the facts here, disposable by the assessee by gift. The cited principle that partitioned assets may belong absolutely to the recipient supported the assessee's power of alienation.

Conclusion: The gift was valid and the value of the gifted property was not includible in the assessee's net wealth.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the gifted property was directed to be excluded from the wealth computation.

Ratio Decidendi: A sole surviving coparcener in possession of coparcenary property may validly alienate or gift it as if it were separate property, and property gifted in such circumstances is not includible in the assessee's net wealth.

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