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TMI Blog1988 (3) TMI 126X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... marry her. I have, therefore, set apart Rs. 1 lac for her marriage. A cheque No. 085574 of even date in her favour drawn on State Bank ofIndia, Modinagar, is handed over to you. Please accept the same on behalf of Miss Archana Modi towards her proposed marriage expenses from me. Yours Sd/-- (CHANDER BALA MODI) " The cheque was accepted and was duly deposited in the account of Miss Archana Modi. It is claimed in the statement of facts accompanying the memorandum of appeal before the AAC that the revised return was filed because the assessee was advised that the gift made to the daughter for her marriage cannot be termed as gift under the Gift-tax Act, as the parents of the daughter were under obligation to marry her and to provide for the marriage expenses. This contention of the assesses has not been accepted by the authorities below and hence this appeal. 3. At the hearing before us the learned counsel for the assessee contended that u/s 20 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, an unmarried daughter is entitled to be maintained by her parents and that maintenance as defined in section 3(b)(ii) of the said Act in the case of an unmarried daughter includes reasonable ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ember, 1985, i.e., 271/2 months after the transfer of the money and there is nothing before us to show that the marriage had been settled or was being negotiated. Under the Maintenance Act, it is the legal obligation of a parent to meet the reasonable expenses of the marriage of a daughter. Now giving away of money to the daughter herself much before the marriage so that the girl could spend the money as she likes would not be the same thing as meeting the expenses of the marriage by the parent. By the transfer of money in the manner in which the assessee purports to have done in the case before us the mother may enable the girl to meet some or all the expenses of her own marriage but that does not mean that it is the mother who is incurring the expenditure and thereby discharging her legal obligation. What the law obliges a parent is to marry a daughter suitably. There is no obligation on a parent to provide money to the daughter several years before the marriage so that she could utilise the money as she likes or may herself meet the expenditure of her marriage whenever desired. We have already reproduced the content of the letter addressed to the father of the girl by the assess ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e legal obligation of the assessee to meet the expenses of her marriage stood discharged and Shri Vaish was fair enough to concede that it was not. We may illustrate the point by an example. Suppose this money had been stolen or had somehow been lost could the parents of the girl refuse to provide her maintenance for the purpose of her marriage by saying that having given her Rs. 1 lakh 271/2 months earlier they were under no obligation to meet the expenses of her marriage. The daughter Miss Archana Modi was a minor when this money was transferred to her. She was born on29-3-1967. In the case before us it is not the assessee's case that there was any contract between the donor and the donee that the transfer of this amount would absolve the mother from her legal obligation regarding maintenance even if there had been any such agreement that would have been void because the girl was not competent to contract. 8. In Basant Kumar Aditya Vikram Birla's case, it was held that the legitimate marriage expenses of the daughter will have to be met out of the funds of the joint family and the amount was so spent cannot be described as a transfer or gift in terms of section 2(12) of the Gif ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ression. It was also held that the gift in question could not be made earlier due to valid reasons. Relying on this ruling the learned counsel for the assessee contended that in the present case the amount was transferred when the girl was already 16 years of age and the marriage took place 271/2 months later and, therefore, it can be said that the transfer was related to the marriage. This contention, in our view, is not legally sustainable. The ratio laid down by Hon'ble the Madras High Court relates to the interpretation of section 5(1)(vii) and Shri Vaish specifically stated before us that the assessee does not want to bring her case under that section. Therefore, we do not see how this ruling can help the assessee. 11. The question is whether by the transfer of Rs. 1 lakh the assessee can be said to have incurred any expenditure on the marriage of her daughter which was her legal obligation. We have stated above that there is distinction between incurring an expenditure and providing another with money to enable him to incur that expenditure for herself. The marriage is not shown to have been even under contemplation when this money was transferred and there was no expenditu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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