Section 50C, being a deeming provision, applies only where the...

Section 50C, being a deeming provision, applies only where the capital asset transferred is "land or building or both" and must be strictly construed. The Act elsewhere expressly differentiates transfer of land/building from transfer of "any right" therein; the absence of such language in section 50C shows it does not extend to mere rights or limited interests. On the contemporaneous registered instruments and valuation record, the assessee transferred only a limited, determinable life interest under a trust coupled with an undivided share, not land or building as such; hence the stamp duty valuation could not be substituted under section 50C. The addition sustained under section 50C was deleted. - ITAT