The questions referred to the High Court were the following page 818 Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Income tax Appellate Tribunal is right in law in holding that the Cutchi Memons settled in Travancore area are governed by the rules of Hindu law number only on matters of succession and inheritance but also on other matters like property rights including joint family property, its distribution according to the rule of survivorship and the right of a son in it by birth ?
On February 11, 1965, the assessee and his sons and a daughter aged 55, 42 and 46 years, respectively , executed a partition deed in respect of certain properties belonging to the family.
The Gift tax Officer took the view that the assessee being a Cutchi Memon, the property belonged to him individually and, therefore, the transaction though described as a partition was in reality a gift by the assessee to his children in the guise of a partition deed.
The assessees family is one of the total of 332 families in the whole of Travancore.
The assessee companytended that his family was governed by the principles of Hindu law including the rule of survivorship and as such the transaction was really a partition of the joint family property.
The assessee is a Cutchi Memon settled in the erstwhile princely State of Travancore which number forms part of the State of Kerala.
The Gift tax Officer rejected the assessees companytention and assessed the transaction as a gift.
The family of the assessee like that of the other Cutchi Memons of Travancore had migrated from Bombay, to which place they came from Sindh after their companyversion from Hinduism.
The assessee preferred an appeal to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner who allowed that appeal.
