1981 (4) TMI 38

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.... the judgment of the Additional District judge, Jhabua, dated October 1, 1966, in Civil Suit No. 1-A of 1965 was only an application of income and not diversion thereof by overriding title under a legal obligation ?." The assessee is an individual and derives income from salary, house property, interest, deposits, etc. Assessment years under reference are 1971-72 to 1975-76. For all the assessment years in question the assessee claimed deduction of Rs. 3,300 which he had paid to his adoptive mothers, Smt. Solankiriji and Smt. Dodnaiji. The ITO disallowed the claim. The matter was taken in appeal by the assessee before the AAC. It was contended by him before the AAC that there was a legal obligation on his part to pay maintenance out of h....

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....the jagir was resumed by the State of Madhya Bharat under the Madhya Bharat Abolition of Jagirs Act (Act No. 23 of 1951). The judgment further shows that compensation amounting to Rs. 1,84,723 was determined as payable to the assessee and the jagir Commissioner acting under s. 9 of the Abolition of Jagirs Act fixed the amount of maintenance payable to the widows of late Thakur Narayansinghji (adoptive mothers of the assessee). The suit was instituted by one of the adoptive mothers of the assessee against the assessee and the other adoptive mother, i. e., the co-widow, claiming partition and, in the alternative, maintenance. The Additional District judge dismissed the claim for partition but held that the plaintiff's claim for maintenance....

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....s held that a maintenance paid to the wife and children under a decree of the court is not deductible from the income. We have already stated the facts to show that the maintenance was payable in view of the statutory obligation which entitled the widow of jagirdar to claim maintenance at the time of determination of the amount of compensation payable to the jagirdar whose jagir was resumed. In Bai Vajia v. Thakorbhai Chelabhai, AIR 1979 SC 993, their Lordships observed thus (headnote): "A widow's right to maintenance, though not an indefeasible right to property, is undoubtedly a pre-existing right ...... The claim to maintenance, as also the right to claim property in order to maintain herself, is an inherent right conferred by the ....