TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1971 (9) TMI 26
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.... Nos. 1429 and 1430 have been brought on the strength of the special leave granted by this court. These are the appeals which we have to consider now. All these appeals arise from the decision of the Bombay High Court in a reference under section 27 of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957. The question referred to the High Court reads : " Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, and having regard to the terms of annexure ' A ' the Tribunal was justified in holding that the interest of the assessee under the trust had no value ? " The relevant portion of the trust deed which came up for consideration by the Tribunal as well as the High Court reads thus : " 2. The trustees shall hold and stand possessed of the trust fund UPON T....
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....trustees in their absolute discretion shall not be questioned by any party in any court of law or otherwise howsoever." The Tribunal came to the conclusion that the estate conferred under the above mentioned clause is a personal estate, that the same is incapable of being sold in the open market and therefore it should be held that that estate has no value. The High Court differing from the view taken by the Tribunal came to the conclusion that even though the estate conferred is a personal estate and it is not possible to sell that estate in an open market yet under the law the same has to be valued on the basis of the principles enunciated in the Wealth-tax Act. The decision in appeal was considered and approved by this court in Ahmed G....
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....d that the right to a share in the income is not capable of any valuation and the price which it would fetch, if sold in the open market, could not possibly be ascertained. Such an argument was fully examined in the Bombay case in which the High Court referred to the provisions of the English statutes, which were in pari materia as also decisions given by the English courts including the one by the House of Lords in Commissioners of Inland Revenue v. Crossman. It has been rightly observed by the High Court that when the statute uses the words if sold in the open market it does not contemplate actual sale or the actual state of the market, but only enjoins that it should be assumed that there is an open market and the property can be sold in....