1997 (1) TMI 34

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....J.---At the instance of the Department, the Tribunal referred the following common question of law, for the assessment years 1975-76 and 1976-77, under section 26 of the Gift-tax Act, 1958, for the opinion of this court : "Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the purchase of a draft in the name of another person in America amounts to a gift made abroad or whether the enca....

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....ssioner followed the decision of the Tribunal in G. T. A. Nos. 58-59 (Madras 77-78), dated April 26, 1978, and allowed the claim. In so doing, he was of the view that whether the gift by the assessee was to the wife or indirectly to the children makes no difference to the real issue whether the gift was made by the assessee abroad and thus exempted from the Gift-tax Act. In the appeals, it was sta....

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.... have taken place in America by treating the bank as the agent of the donee, since remittance in India could be done only through authorised dealers, viz., the banks. The Tribunal further pointed out that even if it is possible for the Revenue to argue that a gift of movable property is complete only by delivery and, in the present case, since the cash was received by the donee in India the gift m....

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....act remains that the assessee purchased the demand drafts in an American bank by paying U. S. dollars. The drafts were sent to his wife in India for the purpose of making payments to his sons. The wife encashed the drafts and paid the amounts to her sons. There was no request either by the wife or by the sons to make a gift. No letter was sent by them to the assessee who is in the U. S. A. In such....