Ma Yait vs The Official Assignee on 28 October, 1929
(4) Now, before we proceed to examine the nature and quality of the interest of the assessee in the corpus, It is necessary first to clear the ground by pointing out that in any event it cannot be regarded as a spes successions . Even if the construction placed by the Tribunal on the relevant provisions of the trust deed is right and the gift to the assessee is held to be contingent on his surviving upto 31st March 1987, the interest of the assessee in the corpus would be a contingent interest and not a spes successions . A spes successions is a bare o naked possibility such as the chance of an heir apparent succeeding to an estate, the chance of a relation obtaining a legacy on the death of a kinsman or any other possibility of a like nature which must be distinguished from a possibility copied with interest. Where interest in corpus is given to a donee under a settlement and such interest is contingent on the happening of an uncertain event, the donee acquires a contingent interest in the corpus which becomes vested on the happening of the uncertain event and such happening of the uncertain event and such contingent interest though dependent on a possibility for its vesting is very much different from a spes successions . It is a form of property which is assignable or transferable and on which money can be raised unlike spes successions which is assignable or transferable and on which money can be raised unlike spes successions which is non-transferable by reason of S. 6(A) of the transfer of Property Act. This distinction between the two legal concepts is clear and well defined and does not need any authority to support it. But if any authority were needed,, it is to be found in the decision of the Privy Council in Ma Yait v. The Official Assignee, 57 Ind Appellant 10: (AIR 1930 PC 17). In that case too, the gift to the children was contingent on the youngest attaining the age of 20 and the argument was that the interest of the children being in the nature of spes successions was not transferable and the assignment of such interest was therefore invalid. The Privy Council repelled this argument holding that the interest which the children took in the corpus was contingent interest which "was something quite different from a mere possibility of a like nature of an heir apparent succeeding to the estate or the chance of relation obtaining a legacy". The Privy Council observed that a contingent interest is " a well ascertained form of property - it certainly has been transferred in this country for generations -in respect of which it is quite possible to raise money and to dispose of it in any way that the beneficiary chooses". It is therefore clear that even if the gift to the assessee bee held to be contingent on his surviving upto 31st March 1987, the interest of the assessee in the corpus cannot be held to be spes successions and hence not transferable under S. 6(a) of the transfer of Property Act.