Saturday, April 25, 2015

No denial of sec. 54F relief on pretext of two houses when assessee had gifted one of them orally under Muslim law


Facts:

a)The assessee had sold a vacant site and purchased another vacant site. She deposited the balance capital gain in the Capital Gains Account Scheme to claim deduction under section 54F.

b)The Assessing Officer (AO) denied relief under Section 54F on the ground that the assessee was owner of two residential houses at the time of sale of vacant land.

c)The assessee contended that she was not owner of two houses as she had made an oral HIBA by which one of the properties was given as a gift to her daughter before the date of transfer of land.

d)The AO rejected the explanation taking a view that gift had not been executed by a registered document.On appeal, the CIT (A) confirmed the order of AO. The aggrieved-assessee filed the instant appeal before the Tribunal.

The Tribunal held in favour of assessee as under:


2)However, the assessee herein was a Muslim andunder the Mohammedan Law, essentials of a gift are declaration of gift by the donor and acceptance of the gift by the donee and delivery of possession. This rule of Mohammedan Law was unaffected by the provision of section 123 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.

3)Thus,oral gift made by the assessee could not be disregarded by the revenue authorities.The requirements of a valid gift as per Mohammedan Law were duly satisfied inasmuch as there had been a declaration of gift by the donor and acceptance of gift by the donee and delivery of possession. The delivery in this case would only be constructive.

4)Since the gift satisfied all the requirements of Mohammedan law it had to be held as valid in law. Assessee could not be regarded as owner of two properties as one of themwas gifted by him before the transfer of vacant land. Thus, restriction placed under the proviso to section 54F(1) would not be attracted in the instant case - SMT. SAJIDA BEGUM V. ITO[2015] 56 taxmann.com 269 (Bangalore - Trib.)