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TMI Blog1969 (4) TMI 9X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he total face value of Rs. 1,05,000. This amount was not included in her wealth-tax return for the assessment years 1960-61 and 1961-62. Her contention that she was not caught by section 4(1)(a)(ii) of the Wealth-tax Act was overruled by the department, but accepted by the Tribunal. At the instance of the Commissioner of Income-tax, the reference comes before us of the question: " Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in law in holding that the value of shares transferred by the assessee to her minor son is not caught by section 4(1)(a)(ii) of the Wealth-tax Act, and is not therefore liable to be included in her wealth-tax assessments for the years 1960-61 and 1961-62?" Section 3 of the Wealt ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... )(i) should be applied and followed as to the scope of each of the rest of the clauses. On a question of construction, the court's primary duty is to interpret the words employed by the legislature in a section, and in doing so, it has of course, to keep in view the context of those words in the particular section, and proceed in the light of the other sections, as well as the scheme, intendment and general scope of the Act. The normal rules of construction are, of course, to be followed in the elucidation, but eventually it is the opinion of the court, formed on a consideration of those words in the context and the arguments addressed for and against a particular meaning to be given to them. We are inclined to think that rarely is the prob ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dual otherwise than for adequate consideration for the benefit "of the individual or his wife or minor child" and (iv) by a person or association of persons to whom such assets had been transferred by the individual otherwise than under an irrevocable transfer. In the first case, the individual who transferred without doubt is the husband, and that is in keeping with the opening words that in computing the net value of an individual "there shall be included, as belonging to him". But, what does the expression "an individual" mean in the second case? It is here divergent arguments have been addressed to us on the one hand stating that "an individual" for the purpose of that case should mean a male, as in the first case, and on the other, it ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nificance or meaning, even in the same section. Section 4 of the Wealth-tax Act is illustrative of that. Years ago, particularly when the Income-tax Act, 1922, was enacted, or when section 16(3) of it was made law, the position of women in this country might perhaps have been different, for, it is common knowledge that there were more cases of husbands transferring properties without consideration to their wives or their children, rather than wives or females doing that in favour of either their husbands or their children. It was, perhaps, this aspect that weighed with the Select Committee, which made the report, in the light of which section 16(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1922, was formulated and it was passed through the legislature. Commis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Perry. To come back to the second case of inclusion in section 4(1)(a), there is nothing in the language or in the context of the rest of the provisions in that section, or even the Act, to compel us to hold that the "individual" there means only a male and does not include a female, according to the context. When we come to the next case of inclusion in section 4(1)(a), "an individual", again, as it appears to us, indicates either a male or a female, according to the context, and, for instance, in the context of a wife, it can only mean a male. But when we come to minor child, it can mean a male or female. The word "both", which occurs in section 16(3)(b) of the Income-tax Act, is not used in section 4(1)(a)(ii) of the Wealth-tax Act. T ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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