1998 (2) TMI 49

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....duction of a sum of Rs. 1,00,000 being the charge of the maintenance of wife and daughters and the provision for marriage expenses of the unmarried daughters in computing the value of estate for the purpose of the estate duty?" The Assistant Controller of Estate Duty (I) had rejected this claim by the accountable person on the ground that the same has not been provided for under the Estate Duty Act. That rejection was confirmed by the Appellate Controller of Estate Duty, who during the course of his order referred to the Hindu Succession Act, and the decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the case of CED v. Smt. P. Leelavathamma [1978] 112 ITR 739. It was held by the Appellate Controller that the wife and the daughter can have such....

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.... has been created either under his will, or under an agreement binding on him, or under a court decree. These statutory provisions, however, do not affect the daughter's independent right under her personal law to render ancestral property liable for her maintenance and marriage." That decision was considered by another Division Bench of this court which included one of the learned judges who decided that case, in the case of G. Shenbagammal v. CED [1986] 162 ITR 445. Dealing with the earlier decision, the court observed as under : "We are of the view that the obligation of the father to perform and spend for the marriage of his unmarried daughter and his obligation to maintain his wife, now statutorily provided for under section 19(1....

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....rting to all the relevant statutory provisions, and the right of a daughter to claim maintenance which is a statutory right would include the right of reasonable marriage expenses and such a claim under the Act can be enforced and it is only after a charge is created by the award of maintenance that the estate can be said to be encumbered. The view of the later Division Bench is amply supported by another decision of this court in the case of Karuppana Gounder v. Chinna Nachammal AIR 1974 Mad 329, wherein it was specifically held that the claim for maintenance would take in the reasonable expenses for the marriage of the unmarried daughter, and such a claim has to be worked out in terms of the Act. The Division Bench held that the textual H....