Hidayatullah, C. J. - (1.) These six appeals by certificate under Article 132 (1) of the Constitution are filed against the decision of the High Court of Mysore, declaring that Parliament had no power to legislate with respect to taxes on gift of lands and buildings. The High Court passed a detailed judgment on two of the petitions by which the competence of Parliament was challenged and followed its own decisions in the other four cases. It is not necessary to give the facts of the six petitions in the High Court. As illustrative of the facts involved we may mention W. P. No. 1077 of 1959. In that case a certain D. H. Hazareth, owner of a coffee plantation, made a gift by registered deed, January 22, 1958, of a coffee plantation and other properties in favour of his four sons. The market value of the property was Rs. 3,74,080 and the coffee plantation accounted for Rupees 3,24,700. Gift tax of Rs. 35,612/- was demanded. If the coffee plantation was left out of consideration the tax was liable to be reduced by Rs. 34,036. The authority to charge gift tax on the gift of the coffee plantation was challenged and the right of Parliament to impose a gift tax on lands and buildings questioned. In some of the other cases agricultural or paddy lands or buildings were the subjects of gifts and they were similarly taxed and the tax questioned.
(2.) The High Court held that Entry 49 of the State List read with Entry 18 of the same list reserved the power to tax lands and buildings to the Legislature of the States and Parliament could not, therefore, use the residuary power conferred by Entry 97 of the union List. This decision is challenged before us.
(3.) The Gift Tax Act was passed in 1958 and subjected gifts made in the year ending March 31, 1958 to tax. The Act contained the usual exempted limits and other exemptions. We need not concern ourselves with them here. We are only concerned with the validity of parliamentary legislation imposing gift tax at all.;