TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1997 (4) TMI 72
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....father and other members of the Hindu undivided family. On May 4, 1965, on a partition amongst themselves, he got a 4/5ths share in the Hindu undivided family properties. On his demise, it is claimed that his unmarried daughter has 1/5th share in it and his widow, the appellant, also has a share in that property. He died on August 18, 1971, and when estate duty was sought to be imposed, the appellant claimed exclusion of her share and that of her daughter in the property under section 8(1)(d) of the Hindu Law Women's Rights Act, 1933 (Mysore Act No. 10 of 1933) (for short, "the Act"). The Estate Duty Officer (sic) excluded her share from the taxable estate. But, on appeal, it was reversed. On a reference, the High Court held that the vie....
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.... applies to the facts in this case. A reading of it would indicate that when joint family property passes to a single coparcener, by survivorship, it shall so pass subject to the rights to share of the classes of females enumerated in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 8. The classes of females have been mentioned in clause (a), namely, his mother, his unmarried daughters, widows and unmarried daughters of his predeceased undivided sons and brothers who have left no male issues ; they are all entitled to a share with him. The question, therefore, is ; whether the appellant, Smt. Manjunatha Gowda, has obtained this estate left by her husband by survivorship ? The Hindu joint family consists of male members descending lineally fro....
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....om him by more than three degrees. Thus, while a son, a grandson or a great-grandson is a coparcener with the holder of the property, the great-great-grandson cannot be a coparcener with him, because he is removed by more than three degrees from the holder. A Hindu undivided family as a concept and a coparcenary are not one and the same under the Hindu law. But, for the purposes of taxation, under the Act, as in other tax measures, like the Income-tax Act, they are treated as one and the same. The question, therefore, is: whether Manjunatha Gowda, when he had the property at the partition between the coparceners, received it by survivorship ? The primary meaning of the word "survive" is to live beyond the life or extent of, or to outlive....
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.... the deceased co-owner." The word "survivor" has been defined in P. Ramanatha Aiyar's The Law Lexicon (1987 edition), thus: "The longer liver of two joint-tenants, or of any two persons joined in the right of a thing. He that remaineth alive, after others be dead, etc. Where a trust deed conveys certain property to certain trustees, and to the survivor of them, or the assigns of such survivor, the term 'the survivor or his assigns' necessarily imports the power to transfer by the survivor." The book further defines the word "survivorship" as under: "The living of one of two or more persons after the death of the other or others. In relation to property the condition that exists where a person becomes entitled to property by r....