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TMI Blog1967 (8) TMI 36X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he Tribunal are that the assessee inherited large properties. A partition thereof was effected on 21st August, 1957, under which the wife of the assessee and his children, including two minors, were awarded extensive properties. In the assessment period in question, the wife and the two minors incurred certain expenditure out of the property allotted to them ; the assessee himself did not incur any expenditure for or on their behalf. The said expenditure was taken to be the expenditure assessable in the hands of the assessee by the departmental authorities and the Tribunal upheld that decision. The Tribunal has, construing section 4(ii) and section 2(g)(i) of the Act, held that expenditure of the wife and minors incurred from whatever source is taxable in the hands of the assessee. Before stating the contentions advanced by learned counsel for the parties, it is necessary to refer to the material provisions of the Act. Section 2(c) of the Act defines " assessee " as meaning " an individual or a Hindu undivided family by whom expenditure or any other sum of money is payable . . . . ". The definition of " dependant " as given by section 2(g), as amended by Act No. 12 of 1959, is th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and (b) any other member of the family who under any law or order or decree of a court, is entitled to maintenance from the joint family property." " 4. Amount to be included in taxable expenditure.-Unless otherwise provided in section 5, the following amounts shall be included in computing the expenditure of an assessee liable to tax under this Act, namely:- (i) any expenditure incurred, whether directly or indirectly by any person other than the assessee in respect of any obligation or personal requirement of the assessee or any of his dependants which, but for the expenditure having been incurred by that other person, would have been incurred by the assessee, to the extent to which the amount of all such expenditure in the aggregate exceeds Rs.5,000 in any year; (ii) any expenditure incurred by any dependant of the assessee for the benefit of the assessee or of any of his dependants out of any gift, donation or settlement on trust or out of any other source made or created by the assessee, whether directly or indirectly. Explanation.-For the removal of doubts it is hereby declared that nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to require the inclusion in the e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ndent on the assessee for support and maintenance or not, the spouse or minor child would be dependant within the meaning of the section. In other words, the test of dependency would not be applicable to the case of a spouse or a minor child." It was argued by Shri Chitale, learned counsel for the assessee, that under the Expenditure-tax Act an " individual " is an assessee ; both the spouses can, therefore, be made assessees and in assessment proceedings initiated against them the expenditure of the one may lawfully be included in the expenditure of the other and thus the same expenditure will be included twice for assessment if the interpretation put by the Tribunal were to be accepted as correct. Learned counsel pointed out that the legislature left the definition of " assessee " unchanged and even the charging section (section 3) only referred to an individual as a unit and not the individual together with his or her spouse and minor children as a unit. It was, therefore, submitted that the contention advanced on behalf of the revenue that the amendments made in 1959 were for the purpose of making the assessee together with his or her spouse and minor child as the unit for as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he assessee for support and maintenance" does not in any way carry the implication that the term " dependant " does not retain its ordinary meaning when the term is defined to mean the spouse or minor child of the individual assessee. In coming to the conclusion that a spouse or minor child not really dependent on the assessee falls within the definition of " dependant " as given in section 2(g)(i), the Tribunal has attached much weight to the fact that after the words "minor child" there is a comma and then follows the expression "and includes any person wholly or mainly dependant on the assessee for support and maintenance". The Tribunal thought that this comma indicated that the words "wholly or mainly dependent on the assessee for support and maintenance" did not in any way relate to the words "his or her spouse or minor child". Now, it is well-settled that punctuation is not part of the statute and cannot, therefore, be regarded as a determining factor in construing the statute. This proposition has been laid down by the Privy Council in Maharani of Burdwan v. Krishna Kamini Dasi. Following this decision of the Privy Council it has been held by man by High Courts that punctuat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ee. What section 4(ii) of the Act does is to prevent the evasion of expenditure tax by the assessee by adopting the device of transferring any income or property to the dependants and then incurring expenditure out of the income or property so transferred. Section 4(ii) provides that where the assessee is an individual or a Hindu undivided family, any expenditure incurred from or out of any income or property transferred directly or indirectly to the dependant by the assessee shall be included in computing the expenditure of the assessee liable to tax. The expression "any expenditure incurred by any dependant from or out of any income or property transferred directly or indirectly to the dependant by the assessee " occurring in section 4(ii) applied not only when the assessee is a Hindu undivided family but also when the assessee is an individual. It is noteworthy that section 4(ii) concludes with the words " by the assessee " and not with the words " Hindu undivided family ". If it was intended that, where the assessee is an individual, any expenditure incurred by the dependant of the assessee, no matter whether from or out of any income or property transferred to the dependant ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . On behalf of the revenue, reliance was placed on the decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in His Highness Prince Azam Jah v. Expenditure-tax Officer, where a contrary view has been taken. In that case after taking into consideration the Budget Speech of the Finance Minister for the year 1959-60 as also the statement of objects and reasons attached to the Finance Bill, it was held that the object of the amendments referred to earlier made in the Act was to make the individual together with his or her spouse and the minor child a unit of assessment and further that there was good reason for making a distinction between an individual and a Hindu undivided family for the purpose of section 4(ii) of the Act. It is well settled that the statement of objects and reasons attached to a Bill is to be excluded while construing the terms of a statute and that the speeches made by members of Parliament are not admissible as extrinsic aids to the interpretation of statutory provisions (see Express Newspapers (P.) Ltd. v. Union of India and Aswini Kumar Ghosh v. Arabinda Bose ). In State of West Bengal v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has said that a statute as passed by Parliament i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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