Wealth-tax exclusion for intestate estate share denied where purchaser acquired the interest from an heir, not as a legatee.

A purchaser of a 1/4th share in an intestate estate could not invoke section 19A of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 to exclude that interest from net wealth. Because the deceased died intestate, the heirs took specific and ascertainable shares on succession, and there was no estate administered by an executor or court-appointed administrator. The assessee acquired the share by registered assignment for consideration from an heir, not as a legatee, so the exclusion for assets distributed to or applied for a specific legatee did not apply. Separate assessment of the estate did not prevent inclusion of the acquired share in the assessee's own wealth, and the plea of rate-only taxation failed.

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Issues: Whether the assessee's acquired 1/4th share in the estate of the deceased could be excluded from her net wealth by invoking section 19A of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957, and whether the inclusion of that share amounted to assessment only for rate purposes or to impermissible double taxation.

Analysis: The deceased had died intestate, so succession opened on death and the heirs acquired ascertainable and specific shares in the estate. In such a situation, there was no executor and no administrator appointed by any competent court, and the estate was not one administered under section 19A. The assessee did not derive her interest as a legatee under the deceased's estate; she acquired the share by a registered assignment for consideration from one of the heirs. The statutory exclusion in section 19A(6) applied only to assets distributed to, or applied for the benefit of, a specific legatee, and did not assist a purchaser from an heir. The fact that the estate itself was separately assessed did not prevent inclusion of the assessee's acquired share in her own wealth.

Conclusion: Section 19A of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 was inapplicable, and the assessee's 1/4th share was rightly included in her net wealth; the contention that it should be taken only for rate purposes failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a person acquires a share in an intestate estate by purchase from an heir, the share is assessable in the purchaser's hands as part of her net wealth and does not fall within the exclusion meant for assets of an estate administered under section 19A or for a specific legatee.

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