1990 (5) TMI 64

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....ready married and they were living along with their husbands in the places of their respective husbands. Shri Rajagopala Iyer used to maintain accounts for the HUF. In the accounting year relevant for the assessment year 1978-79 he got his last daughter married by spending a sum of Rs. 79,141, the particulars of which are available in the accounts maintained by him. The assets of the HUF on the valuation date relevant for 1978-79 were of the value of only Rs. 2,15,429. For a family having only so much of wealth, the Gift-tax Officer thought that spending a sum of Rs. 79,141 towards the marriage expenses of the unmarried daughter in the family is quite disproportionate and cannot be taken to be the reasonable and legitimate marriage expenses....

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....ovable property made voluntarily and without consideration in money or money's worth and includes the transfer referred to in section 4, deemed to be a gift. In view of the definition of the gift, the Dy. Commissioner(A) held that the excess amount of Rs. 49,141 constituted gift within the meaning of sec. 2(xii) of the Gift-tax Act and hence he confirmed the Gift-tax Officer's order and dismissed the appeal filed by the assessee. Hence this second appeal. 3. In Basant Kumar Aditya Vikram Birla's case the following is what is held as per head-note of the decision :-- " The legal as well as moral obligation under the Hindu law of an HUF to incur expenses on the occasion of the marriage of an unmarried daughter is recognised by the court....

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....rring any amount really or making any gift in the strict sense of the term. The daughter had the right under the law to have her marriage expenses met. " The Calcutta High Court approvedly quoted the Andhra Pradesh High Court decision in CGT v. Ch. Chandrasekhara Reddy [1976] 105 ITR 849 where it was observed that a gift by a father or mother or other guardian in discharge of a moral obligation would not attract the provisions of the Gift-tax Act. In this connection, from the quotation extracted above, the sentence " there was no question of anybody transferring any amount really or making any gift in the strict sense of the term " is very significant. We humbly follow the Calcutta High Court decision and hold that as per the ratio of th....