V. VENUGOPALA VARMA RAJAH vs CONTROLLER OF ESTATE DUTY, KERALA — 1971 PTD 846

Citation: 1971 PTD 846

Court: Kerala High Court

Year: 1968

Decision Date: 1968-10-17

Parties: V. VENUGOPALA VARMA RAJAH vs CONTROLLER OF ESTATE DUTY, KERALA

Headnotes

Case cited as 1971 PTD 846

Judgment Text

Court Name: Kerala High Court Judge(s): M. U. Isaac, P. Narayan Pillai Title: V. VENUGOPALA VARMA RAJAH vs CONTROLLER OF ESTATE DUTY, KERALA Case No.: Case No. 79 of 1967 Date of Judgment:1968-10-17 Reported As: 1971 PTD 846 Result: reference made JUDGMENT JUDGMENT ISAAC, J.---This is a reference made by the Madras Bench of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal under section 64(1) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953, on the application of the assessee. The question referred is: "Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal was correct in law in having included the value of the forest lands in the total value of the estate for the purpose of estate duty?" The estate concerned in this case is that of Smt. Jayalakshmi Devi and Shri Madhava Rajah of Kollengode, the former having died on 6th March 1954, and the latter on 9th May 1955. They were members of a Marumakkathayam tarwad; and each of them had admittedly a one-thirteenth share in the tarward properties on the dates of their deaths. The tarward had large extends of forest lands situate in the erstwhile Malabar District which was part of the State of Madras till the formation of Kerala on November 1, 1956. The assessee claimed that forest lands are agricultural lands, and they were not, therefore, liable to estate duty under the Estate Duty Act, 1953. In support of this claim, reliance was made on the decision of the Madras High Court in Sarojini Devi v. Sri Krishna (AIR 1944 Mad. 401), which…

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