ISSUE:
Whether the share of the widow and the unmarried daughter should be excluded from estate duty calculation?
Whether the property received by Manjunatha Gowda was by survivorship or by partition?
RULE:
Section 8(1)(d) of the Hindu Law Women’s Rights Act, 1933 (Mysore Act VIII of 1933). The rule applied here establishes that once a property is obtained through partition, it ceases to be joint family property and becomes individual property, thereby subjecting the full estate to taxation.
Co-parcenary is a narrower body than a joint family. It commences with a common ancestor and includes a holder of joint property and only those males in his male line who are not removed from him by more than three degrees. Thus while a son, a grandson or a great-grandson is a coparcener with the holder of the property, the great- great-grandson cannot be co-parcenar with him, because he is removed by more than three degrees from the holder.
The word `survivor' usually applies to the longest lives of two or more partners or trustees, and has been applied in some cases to the longest liver or joint tenants and legatees, and to others having a joint interest in any property.