1996 (3) TMI 85

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.... of the deceased ? " The Tribunal has deleted the inclusion of Rs. 85,000 in the estate of the deceased. There was a cashew factory building at Calicut which was valued at Rs. 85,000 and from its inception it stood in the name of the wife of the deceased which became the subject-matter of the proceedings under the Estate Duty Act as a result of the death on January 11, 1973, of her husband. Initially, it was included in the estate duty return by the wife-accountable person. The reason was that the properties stood in her name from its inception. With regard to this aspect, the Assistant Controller of Estate Duty by the order (annexure "A") found that as far as the deceased is concerned all along in the wealth-tax assessments the....

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....he wealth-tax assessment the property was included. It was urged before the Tribunal that such inclusion not only of the income of the property and the value thereof in the assessment proceedings under the Income-tax Act and the Wealth-tax Act was only by operation of section 64 of the Income-tax Act and not because the deceased had any preferential interest in such property. It was urged that the wife--the accountable person, was never considered as a benamidar of the deceased. It was emphasised that the deceased during his life time had not at any time declared that he had any kind of beneficial interest in the property. As a consequence it was urged that by reason of the position that right from the inception of the purchase of the pr....

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....tual situation spells out the benami character of the properties of the deceased at the hands of the person accountable then and then only such property could be said to have passed on the death of the deceased under section 6 of the Estate Duty Act. If the factual situation is that the property does not display benami character in any manner and shows that from the inception the property is purchased in the name of the wife and continues to have the same character thereafter then the property cannot be understood to pass as the property of the deceased as per the provisions of section 6 of the Estate Duty Act. It must be clarified that in the judgment of the Tribunal there is a wrong mention of the section. It is not section 6 but it is se....