1982 (2) TMI 36

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....BRAHMANYAN J.-The assessee in this wealth-tax reference owned a life interest in a number of houses on the relevant valuation date, namely, March 31, 1973. For the assessment year 1973-74, he claimed exemption under s. 5(1)(iv) in respect of one of the houses. The WTO refused the exemption on the ground that the assessee was only life tenant of the house. The Tribunal, in appeal, however, held tha....

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....ld by a life tenant for life cannot be held to be property " belonging to " the assessee within the meaning of s. 5(1)(iv) of the Act. As authority for this proposition the case of A. & F. Harvey Ltd. v. CWT [1977] 107 ITR 326 (Mad) was cited. The case cited by Mr. Rangaswamy as well as an earlier case in Thirumani Mudaliar v. CWT [1974] 96 ITR 152 (Mad) had to deal with quite a different quest....

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...., when we speak of certain physical objects as belonging to a person without any qualifying expression, the primary natural meaning is that they are his own absolute property. When a person by virtue of a contractual obligation takes up the management of the properties as per the directions of a testator, he cannot be said to own the property absolutely.' This passage was quoted as a correct en....

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.... aggregate value of all assets " belonging to the assessee ". If the house does not " belong " to the assessee as a life tenant so as to be exempt from s. 5(1)(iv) how can it be included in his assessment as taxable net wealth as a house " belonging " to the assessee ? Sometimes arguments are addressed without fully realising where they lead us to. The expression " assets " is defined in the W.....