Estate duty valuation, goodwill, and marriage exemption depend on reliable evidence and statutory conditions, not assumptions.

Estate duty valuation depends on reliable evidence: an enhanced bungalow value based on an isolated sale and projected price increase was rejected where the property's cantonment restrictions made comparables unreliable. In a cinema business, goodwill is not presumed; unless a separable transferable goodwill asset is shown, no goodwill passes on death for estate duty. A gift to a son does not fall within the marriage exemption unless it is made in consideration of an existing marriage arrangement, so the exemption was unavailable. Marriage expenses of children were also not deductible because no estate duty provision allowed such an allowance.

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Issues: (i) whether the addition of Rs. 1,00,000 to the declared value of the bungalow was justified; (ii) whether any goodwill of the cinema business passed on death and was includible in the estate; (iii) whether the gift of Rs. 10,000 to the son was exempt as a gift in consideration of marriage; and (iv) whether marriage expenses of the children could be allowed as a deduction.

Issue (i): whether the addition of Rs. 1,00,000 to the declared value of the bungalow was justified.

Analysis: The valuation adopted by the department was based on a small isolated sale and on a projected yearly increase in prices. The property was a large bungalow in a cantonment area, where restrictions on use and sub-division materially affect value. Comparable sale material indicated that the enhanced valuation was not dependable.

Conclusion: The addition was not justified and the bungalow was to be taken at the declared value of Rs. 7,14,000, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): whether any goodwill of the cinema business passed on death and was includible in the estate.

Analysis: Goodwill is not presumed in every business. In a cinema exhibition business, profits depend mainly on the films exhibited, yet personal management may still have some role. On the facts, the profits were substantially attributable to capital employed and to the personal efforts of the deceased, and no separable goodwill asset was shown to have survived for transmission to the heirs.

Conclusion: No goodwill passed on death and the addition representing the deceased's share in goodwill was deleted, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (iii): whether the gift of Rs. 10,000 to the son was exempt as a gift in consideration of marriage.

Analysis: The marriage had not been settled or celebrated, and the alleged gift could not be treated as one made in consideration of marriage. The statutory exemption for such gifts was therefore unavailable.

Conclusion: The gift remained liable to be treated as passing on death and the claim for exemption failed, against the assessee.

Issue (iv): whether marriage expenses of the children could be allowed as a deduction.

Analysis: No provision in the estate duty law allowed such a deduction. The cited authority did not decide that such expenses were legally admissible; it dealt only with the reasonableness of an allowance already made in different facts.

Conclusion: The claimed deduction for marriage expenses was not allowable, against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The assessment was reduced by deleting the additions for enhanced bungalow valuation and goodwill, while the treatment of the gift and the disallowance of marriage expenses were sustained; the appeal succeeded only in part.

Ratio Decidendi: For estate duty purposes, value enhancements and alleged goodwill additions must rest on reliable evidence of market value or transferable business goodwill, and a gift qualifies for the marriage exemption only when it is in consideration of an existing marriage arrangement.

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