Parent's duty to provide for a daughter's marriage can amount to valid consideration, outside gift-tax treatment.

A transfer of land by a mother to her daughter at the time of marriage, made in discharge of the parent's legal obligation to maintain and provide for an unmarried daughter's marriage, is supported by valid consideration and is not a voluntary gratuitous transfer. Under the Gift-tax Act, a gift requires a transfer without consideration in money or money's worth, and the obligation recognised in Hindu law and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, supplies that consideration. The same principle applies where the father is absent or unable to maintain the daughter, so the settlement does not fall within the statutory definition of a taxable gift.

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Issues: Whether the transfer of land by a mother to her daughter on the occasion of the daughter's marriage, in discharge of the mother's obligation to maintain and marry her daughter, is a transfer without consideration so as to constitute a taxable gift under the Gift-tax Act.

Analysis: The definition of gift under section 2(xii) of the Gift-tax Act requires a voluntary transfer without consideration in money or money's worth. The governing principles of Hindu law, as recognised in judicial decisions, treat the obligation to provide for a daughter's marriage as a legal and moral obligation. That obligation was further reflected in the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, under which maintenance includes reasonable expenses incidental to the marriage of an unmarried daughter. The discharge of that obligation by settling property on the daughter at the time of marriage therefore supplies valid consideration and removes the transaction from the category of a voluntary, gratuitous transfer. The same principle applies to the mother where the father is absent or unable to maintain the daughter.

Conclusion: The transfer was supported by consideration arising from the mother's legal obligation and was not a gift exigible to gift-tax.

Ratio Decidendi: A transfer of property made by a parent in discharge of the legal obligation to maintain and provide for an unmarried daughter's marriage is not a voluntary transfer without consideration and therefore does not fall within the statutory definition of a gift.

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