Q.State, with reference to Section 2(47), whether each of the following amounts to a 'Transfer' of a capital asset:

Section 2(47) recognises several modes of transfer well beyond an ordinary registered sale.

Section 2(47) defines 'Transfer' to expressly include sale, exchange, and relinquishment of the asset; extinguishment of rights in the asset; compulsory acquisition under any law; conversion of the asset into stock-in-trade of a business carried on by the assessee; maturity or redemption of a zero-coupon bond; and certain possession-based immovable-property transactions.

1. Sale through a registered sale deed: this is the most direct mode listed — a sale — and is unambiguously a Transfer.
2. Compulsory acquisition by the State Government: even though Mr. Sen did not choose to dispose of the land, Section 2(47) expressly includes compulsory acquisition of the asset under any law as a Transfer — the resulting compensation received is treated exactly like sale consideration for computing Capital Gains. …

Students often assume 'transfer' means only a voluntary sale for money, and wrongly conclude that a compulsory acquisition (no willing seller) or a conversion into stock-in-trade (no buyer at all, no cash changing hands) falls outside Capital Gains al …